MONTGOMERY, Ala.—Troy University opened a new children's wing at the Rosa Parks museum Friday, allowing young visitors to board a replica of the 1950s bus on which she made civil rights history by refusing to give up her seat to a White man.
But the $5 million expansion drew a prompt rebuke from an organization founded by Parks that is suing the school.
The Detroit-based Rosa and RaymondParks Institute for Self-Development contends the expansion violates a 1998 agreement that allowed Troy's Montgomery branch to build the museum, located near the site where Parks was arrested in 1955.
The institute filed suit to block the children's wing last year, but Montgomery Circuit Judge Charles Price refused to stop the project. The suit, however, is still pending.
GwendolynThomas Kennedy, a Montgomery lawyer representing the institute, said Troy used Parks' name to raise millions from the federal government and others for the museum and the new wing, but has not lived up to the agreement.
The university, she said, has not created a scholarship in Parks' name, has not established a lecture series with input from the institute, has exceeded the authorized size of the museum and failed to collaborate with the institute on the new wing.
"If it can't be rectified, we want the name off the building and the money returned to Congress," she said.
Troy attorney Lewis Gillis called the suit "hogwash."
He said representatives of the institute were involved either in person or by phone in the meetings where plans for the new wing were developedandwhere speakers for the museum were discussed. He said Troy has set aside money to begin scholarships, but the institute has not come up with money for its share of the financial aid.
Asked what's behind the suit, Gillis said, "It's money. That's all it is."
The wing's first floor features the Cleveland Avenue Time Machine in which visitors board a replica of a 1950s Montgomery city bus. The driver is a robot who takes passengers back in time to the early "Jim Crow" era during the 20-minute, multi-sensory experience.
On the second floor, visitors can research historical information and hear testimonials of those who participated in the boycott on kiosks and computer stations. Some 30,000 visitors are expected to visit the wing each year.
—The Associated Press
