Macon celebrates Rosa Parks’ 110th birthday with reenactment, live music downtown
Downtown Macon’s Rosa Parks Square was filled with at least a hundred attendees Saturday to celebrate Parks and reflect upon her legacy.
“Freedom in the Park,” which took place on what would have been Parks’ 110th birthday, featured live music from Macon mainstay Dean Brown and the Dubshak Band and a guest performance from musician Brent “Matthius” Brooks.
The main event was a reenactment, which was produced, written and directed by LaNita Pless King. The show featured several actors and dancers who portrayed Parks’s journey in refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white man, being arrested and booked, and the subsequent protests that led to a Montgomery, Alabama federal court ruling that laws requiring racially segregated seating on buses were a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
King said that Parks was the reason that she felt inspired to start her own nonprofit, Theater Plus Corporation, which was the organization behind the performance. Theater Plus is “a faith based non-profit performing arts organization” with a goal to “spread hope through the avenue of arts in all forms,” according to the nonprofit’s Facebook page.
“She’s an inspiration,” King said. “To be able to do a story for an iconic figure in the community, it means everything. That goes right along the lines of what our motto is: ‘Production with purpose.’”
Artishea Tripp, who portrayed Rosa Parks, sang a moving rendition of Andra Day’s “Rise Up” throughout the show as she resisted injustice in her community. At the conclusion of the performance, the rest of the cast gathered around Tripp to join her in song.
Among the performers in the re-enactment was Macon Mayor Lester Miller, who played the role of a passenger and boycotter.
The event was hosted by the Friends of Rosa Parks Square Board, a Macon-Bibb County nonprofit group dedicated to maintaining the park as a place where residents can congregate and enjoy activities with their families and friends.
Nancy Cleveland, president of the board, noted the importance of celebrating the legacies of activists such as Parks’.
“I just see how all of the people before me paved the way to me being able to use my voice, to have an opinion on government spaces and just to even exist and not be persecuted for the color of my skin,” Cleveland said. “It sometimes seems unreal, that that’s what we went through.”
While they have been hard at work planning the annual “Freedom in the Park” event, next on the docket for the Friends of Rosa Parks Square Board is to gather funding and support to erect a statue of Parks in the square.
“While we’re behind the scenes planning to raise money and working with contractors to get the final cost of the park, we’re also activating the space and showing people that you can come enjoy it,” she said. “You can come enjoy it with your family, you can come enjoy it to honor your ancestors and just have a good space.”
This story was originally published February 6, 2023 at 7:00 AM.