Rosa Parks' papers go to library of congress.

• Position: Your Life - Rosa Parks Collection

Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus to a white passenger on Dec. 1,1955, led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a seminal event in the U.S. civil rights movement.

Now, the Rosa Parks Collection--which comprises approximately 1,500 items, including personal correspondence and photographs, autobiographical notes, letters from presidents, her Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal, additional honors and awards, clothing and furniture, and 200 drawings by schoolchildren and hundreds of greeting cards from individuals thanking her for her inspirational role in the civil rights movement--will reside at the Library of Congress thanks to a 10-year loan from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.

Items from the collection will be incorporated next spring into the exhibition 'The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom," which is on view through Sept. 12, 2015. In addition, the Library will digitize the documents and materials and make them available through its website.

"Rosa Parks is an iconic figure in the American civil rights movement, the very definition of the...