Unseen photos of Rosa Parks return to Montgomery, Alabama, seven decades later

By Safiyah Riddle The Associated Press MONTGOMERY Ala Seven decades after Rosa Parks was thrust indelibly into American history for refusing to give up her bus seat in Montgomery Alabama new photos of the Civil Rights Movement icon have been made inhabitants for the first time and they illustrate aspects of her legacy that are often overlooked The photos were taken by the late Civil Rights photographer Matt Herron and they depict Parks at the march from Selma to Montgomery in a five-day-long -mile -kilometer trek that is often credited with galvanizing political momentum for the U S Voting Rights Act of History lessons tend to define Parks by her act of civil disobedience a decade earlier on Dec which launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott On Friday particular boycott participants and a multitude of of the boycott organizers descendants gathered to mark years since the -day struggle in Alabama s capital caught national attention overthrowing racial segregation on constituents transportation The never-before-seen photos distributed to the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery on Thursday taken a decade after the boycott are a reminder that her activism began before and extended well beyond her largest part well-known act of defiance stated Donna Beisel the museum s director This is showing who Ms Parks was both as a person and as an activist Beisel commented Never printed before There are plenty of other photos placing Parks among the other Civil Rights icons who attended the march including specific that were taken by Herron But others were never printed or put on display in any of the photographer s numerous exhibits and books throughout his lifetime Herron moved to Jackson Mississippi with his wife and two young kids in after Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers was assassinated For the next two years his photos captured chosen of the largest part notable people and events of that time But in largest part of his photos Herron s lens was trained on masses of everyday people who empowered Civil Rights leaders to make change Herron s wife Jeannine Herron mentioned that the photos going residents this week were discovered from a contact sheet housed in a library at Stanford University The photos weren t selected for print at the time because they were blurry or included people whose names weren t as well known In Parks scenario the new photos show her sitting among the crowd looking away from the camera Now Jeannine Herron is joining forces with historians and surviving Civil Rights activists in Alabama to reunite the work with the communities that they depict It s so vital to get that information from history into local people s understanding of what their families did Jeannine Herron commented A joyous reunion One of Herron s majority frequent subjects throughout the Selma to Montgomery march was a -year-old woman from Marion Alabama named Doris Wilson Decades after he captured her as she endured the historic march he still expressed his desire to reconnect with her I would love to find where she is in the present day Herron disclosed in a interview among Civil Rights activists and journalists who witnessed that transformative period in the Deep South Herron died in before he had the chance to reconnect with Wilson But on Thursday Wilson joined other residents of Marion a rural town in the Black Belt of Alabama Milling around an auditorium in Lincoln Normal School a college founded by nine formerly enslaved Black people after the Civil War people looked at black and white photos that Herron took over the years pointing out familiar faces or backdrops Various photos were familiar to the -year-old But others including ones where she was the subject Wilson had never seen before One of the photos depicts Wilson getting medication at a anatomical tent along the path of the march Wilson had intense blisters on her feet from walking over miles each day The medical expert who was tending to her injuries June Finer also flew in from New York to reunite with Wilson for the first time since Finer gently cared for Wilson s bare feet six decades earlier Are you the one who rubbed my feet Wilson appealed as the two women laughed and embraced Finer commented she wasn t even aware that people were taking photos she was laser-focused on the safety of the marchers Later Wilson reflected on how meaningful the reunion had been I longed to see her Wilson commented Robert E Wilson Wilson s eldest son declared he had never seen the photos of his mother that were on display in the old school building where she went to school He was a young child when she completed the march I m so stunned She unfailingly revealed she was in the march but I never knew she was strong like that the now -year-old who was raised in Marion stated Years of searching Cheryl Gardner Davis has faint recollections of the evening in when her family hosted the weary walkers on the third night of the march to Montgomery She remembers hordes of strangers erecting tents on her family s farm in the rural Lowndes County Alabama Just four years old at the time she remembers how her mother and older sister had to mop up mud inside their hallway from people who had come in to use their landline phone It wasn t until she was an adult that she fully understood the significance of her family s sacrifice Her mom s job as a educator was threatened the family s power was cut off and a neighbor menaced them with his rifle For years she scoured the internet and libraries for photo evidence of their hardship or at least a picture of her family s property at the time Among the hundreds of photos that made their way back to Alabama in the first week of December were pictures of the campsite at Davis childhood home Davis who had never seen the photos before explained it was a vital way to bring light to the people who often are an afterthought in the recounting of that transformative historical period It s in a sense validation This truly happened and people were there Davis declared Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter