It’s the 67th anniversary of Rosa Parks’ infamous protest that changed the course of history.
On December 1, 1955, Parks made the ultimate decision to be still in protest by refusing to relinquish her seat to a white man.
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Following Parks’ refusal to get out of her seat, she was then arrested for violating a law that segregated public buses. Parks’ protest fueled a fire throughout Montgomery, Alabama, which led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and dealt a significant financial blow to bus companies in the area, according to the NAACP.
The bus in which that stand was taken on in Montgomery, Alabama, now resides at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, Michigan, giving people all around the world the opportunity to see it. It’s quite an interesting story how the bus ended up there.
It was difficult to decipher the authenticity of the bus when it was being searched for because “the bus identification number was not recorded in any official documents when Rosa Parks was arrested,” according to the Henry Ford website.
It was announced over 20 years ago that the famous bus Rosa Parks changed history on would be auctioned off, and members of the Henry Ford Museum caught wind of the news through the Wall Street Journal.
Soon after they investigated and were convinced that it was the famous bus, the Henry Ford Museum staff began to bid for it. The bid began at $50,000, but the staff ended up paying $492,000, beating out notable bidders such as the Smithsonian Institution and the City of Denver, according to the Henry Ford website.
After the museum’s acquisition, the next step was to begin the process of restoring the vehicle to its original state, which started another bidding war about who would have the opportunity to do so. The Henry Ford Museum decided to let MSX International, an automotive services firm based in Southfield, Michigan, take on the tasks and it cost more than $300,000.
According to the Henry Ford museum website, the Rosa Parks bus project received a whopping $205,000 through the Save America’s Treasures Program to help assist the restoration.