Rosa Parks and Helen Keller statues unveiled at Alabama Capitol
People view a newly unveiled statue of Rosa Parks on the grounds of the Alabama State Capitol, Friday, Oct. 24, 2025, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Statues of Rosa Parks and Helen Keller have been unveiled on the grounds of the Alabama Capitol.
The monuments honoring the Alabama natives, whose advocacy helped dismantle racial segregation and promoted the rights of people with disabilities, are the first statues of women to be installed on the lawn of the Alabama Capitol.
While inside the Capitol there is a bust of former Gov. Lurleen Wallace, the state’s first female governor who died in office in 1968, there were no monuments to famous women on the Capitol grounds.
“For the very first time, the grounds of our capitol will now feature statues of women and what finer examples could there be then Rosa Parks and Helen Keller,” Gov. Kay Ivey said at the ceremony this morning.
“I know how pleased aunt Helen would be to be honored with the statue of her likeness at the Alabama state capitol and to be so honored alongside Miss Rosa Parks. Let us carry forth the torch lit by these two extraordinary women ensuring their courage, vision and compassion continue to guide us,” Keller Johnson Thompson, the great grandniece of Helen Keller said.
“In this sculpture, I chose to portray Ms. Parks in action in the moment. Ms. Parks began to take her faithful steps into history ultimately testing America and eventually inspiring America to live up to the ideals in the declaration,” Julia Knight, the artist behind the Rosa Parks statue, said.
Rep. Laura Hall, who sponsored the legislation that authorized the monuments, said it is important that visitors to the Capitol “see the full picture, the history and the impact that women have played.”
People view a newly unveiled statue of Helen Keller on the grounds of the Alabama State Capitol, Friday, Oct. 24, 2025, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
“Helen Keller and Rosa Parks just seemed to be the image that — whether you were Black or white, Democrat or Republican — you could identify with and realize the impact that they had on history,” Hall said.
Known as the mother of the Civil Rights Movement, Parks was arrested on Dec. 1, 1955, when she refused to leave her bus seat for a white passenger. Her action ignited the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Black passengers that desegregated the city bus system and helped usher in change nationwide.
Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia. She became deaf and blind after a serious illness shortly before her second birthday. With the help of tutor Anne Sullivan, Keller learned to communicate through sign language and Braille, and became a well-known writer and lecturer. She championed the rights of workers, poor people, women and people with disabilities around the world.
The statue of Parks was installed by the Alabama Capitol steps facing Dexter Avenue, the street where Parks boarded the bus and made history in 1955, just across from a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
The statue of Keller faces the Alabama State House.
Their unveiling on Friday was more than six years in the making. Alabama lawmakers approved Hall’s legislation in 2019. The Alabama Women’s Tribute Statue Commission worked to see it through, commissioning the statues and finalizing the displays.
(Copyright 2025 The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
