Rosa Parks’ Detroit home and letter to MLK up for auction

Jul 26, 2018

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A little part of civil rights history will live on in the homes of those who can afford to purchase artifacts from icons like Rosa Parks.

On Thursday, during an auction of a home Parks lived in as well as many other African American cultural keepsakes the Daily Mail reports history enthusiasts can own a piece of American history.

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Guernsey’s, an auction house, will auction off the home Parks once lived in that belonged to her brother. The home is where Parks’ lived in Detroit after the civil rights activist fled the South because of over death and jail threats. Parks moved two years after she refused to give up her bus seat for a white passenger and sparked the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott.

The proceeds from the home will benefit Parks’ family as well as artist Ryan Mendoza, who saved the home by purchasing it after threats of being demolished. Mendoza rebuilt the home in his yard.

Other items up for auction include:

· A handwritten letter by Rosa Parks from 1955 detailing her first meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., just months before her she changed the course of history by refusing to give up her bus seat. – Est: $100,000 – $300,000

· The Jackson 5’s first record professional recording contract, signed between their father, Joe Jackson, and Steeltown Records, who gave them their start in the music biz. – Est: $100,000 – $300,000

· The manuscript for Malcolm X’s autobiography, as told to Alex Haley, with “lost chapters” that were too controversial to include at the time. – Est: $100,000 – $200,000

· A letter from Martin Luther King Jr. speaks of his opposition to the Vietnam War stating that it is his “deep belief that every citizen of this country should speak out against this intolerable war…not only is the war reprehensible on moral grounds, but practically, it is draining billions of dollars from urgently needed federal assistance programs for our own citizens, black and white…I encourage you to speak out.” Est. $15,000 – $25,000

· Jazz legend Art Tatum’s Bulova watch, gifted and inscribed by Frank Sinatra, TO ART TATUM / FROM FRANK SINATRA. – Est: $10,000 – $20,000

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Guernsey’s said it is expecting Parks’ house to sell for $1 million to $3 million.

“Anybody would hope that this ends up at some institution where it could be publicly exhibited and serve in some inspirational way to future generations,” Arlan Ettinger, president of Guernsey’s auctioneers, said of the house.