Rosa Parks Flat
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Parks, Rosa L. (McCauley) and Raymond, Flat | |
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 Interactive map | |
| Location | 3201-3203 Virginia Park St. Detroit, Michigan |
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| Coordinates | 42°21′52″N 83°6′35″W / 42.36444°N 83.10972°W |
| Built | c. 1917 |
| Architectural style | Craftsman |
| MPS | The Civil Rights Movement and the African American Experience in 20th Century Detroit MPS |
| NRHP reference No. | 100006131[1] |
| Added to NRHP | February 5, 2021 |
The Rosa L. (McCauley) and Raymond Parks Flat, or simply the Rosa Parks Flat, is a two-story brick duplex located at 3201-3203 Virginia Park Street in Detroit, Michigan. The building is significant as the home of civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who lived in the first floor flat with her husband Raymond from 1961 to 1988. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.[1]
The neighborhood around this duplex was being developed in the 1910s, and the duplex itself was likely built in 1917. The first resident of the first floor flat was Frank A. Miller, a patternmaker who lived there with his wife and family. Miller lived there in the early 1930s, and James Mondes, a store clerk, occupied the flat in the late 1930s through about World War II. This also marked a time of transition for the neighborhood, which until this time consisted of white, predominantly blue-collar workers. After World War II, the neighborhood gradually transitioned to majority African American residents.[2]
Rosa Parks
After the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955, Rosa Parks and her husband Raymond were the target of harassment in Montgomery. In 1957, they decided to move to Detroit, settling in with Parks's brother. However, couple struggled economically over the next few years, with both finding it difficult to find employment. They moved to a few different addresses, and by 1960 their plight began to draw attention. In early 1961, Raymond Parks found employment at a barber shop and Rosa Parks began work at the Stockton Sewing Company, and the couple were able to afford to move into the ground floor of this duplex.[2]
During her time living in this flat, Rosa Parks continued her civil rights activism. In 1965, newly elected Congressman John Conyers hired her to work in his office. Parks participated in numerous civil rights actions in Detroit and throughout the nation. However, by the 1970s both Rosa Parks and Raymond Parks were experiencing health issues, and Raymond died in 1977. Rosa continued to work for Conyers and live in the flat until 1988, when she retired and moved into a house a dozen blocks north. She lived there until 1994, when she moved to Riverfront Towers.[2]
