Posted on 12/06/2004 6:41:28 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Rosa Parks' landlord has offered to let her stay in her apartment rent-free, two years after threatening to evict her when the owners said her caretakers missed rental payments. Parks' doctors say the 91-year-old civil rights pioneer has dementia and is in poor health. Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit had been paying Parks' rent, which had been as high as $1,800 a month, since August 2003, the Rev. Charles Adams said.
"We did not want her set out in the street," Adams said. "We didn't want to make a big noise out of it. ... It was a simple act of kindness."
In an October letter, Riverfront Associates, which owns the apartment where Parks has lived since 1994, said she could stay for free for the rest of her life.
"I thought it was the right thing to do," managing partner Peter Cummings told the Detroit Free Press for Monday's editions. "This woman is an icon. She deserves an enormous amount of respect. In a way, I think it's an honor to be able to accord her that respect."
Parks was 42 when she refused to give up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955. Her arrest triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system organized by a then little-known Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
More recently, Parks' lawyers have filed two suits involving the hip-hop duo OutKast and their record company, BMG, over a song titled "Rosa Parks." They seek a total of $5 billion.
Elaine Steele, who manages the nonprofit Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute, told the newspaper that Parks gets proper care and eviction notices were sent in error in 2002.
$1800/mo??? That's insane.
They seek a total of $5 billion.
Why isn't this poor woman being cared for in a relative's home?
An apartment!? $1800?! That IS insane!
How about asking for a reasonable amount that they might actually win and help the old lady out?
I must say that is quite a journey. From being made to sit in the back of a bus to living in a $1800 a month apartment, rent free.
I bet she loves America.
"How about asking for a reasonable amount that they might actually win and help the old lady out?"
What? And ask the lawyers to take a paltry sum instead of their birthright?
Nice to see all the civil rights people taking care of Rosa. Wouldn't want them to inconvenience themselves... let's let the landlord shoulder the responsibility. /sarcasm
I detroit, you betcha... can buy entire neihborhoods in detroit for $1800 a month.
in the city of Detroit that is the high end, but not the highest....
check out DC/NYC sometime.....its worse there....
So where are the ACLU and/or NAACP on THIS situation...a REAL cause instead of their usual trumped up anti-religious
or anti-Republican venue?
She could buy Greyhound with that kind of bread.
Actually, it's a CD.
My thoughts exactly! Who is responsible for her care? They should be taken to court for mismanagement!
Boston's the same. It's been a while since I was looking, but I remember $1100 for a STUDIO apt.
More than one bedroom is probably $2000+
Where's Jesse? Where's Kwaizi? Where's Danny Glover?
Julian Bond, so busy bashing President Bush, but he can't find a way to have the NAACP take care of an icon in the black community.
id believe it...
where I am at in Columbus is a two bedroom one bathroom apt for 650, I know the bigger cities are a lot worse too....
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