Troy University’s Rosa Parks Museum will celebrate what would have been the Civil Rights icon’s 106th birthday on Monday, Feb. 4 with free admission, special activities and a birthday cake.

Mrs. Parks, often referred to as the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement, died in October 2005 at the age of 92. Her Dec. 1, 1955 arrest for refusing to relinquish her seat on a Montgomery city bus to a white male led to the 382-day boycott of the city’s buses by African Americans. The boycott ended on Dec. 20, 1956, after the United States Supreme Court upheld the lower court ruling that declared segregated bus service to be unconstitutional.

As a part of the celebration, the museum will present special music by Duron Hale beginning at 9:30 a.m. and story times for children beginning at 10 a.m. The museum’s hours of operation are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Opened in 2000, TROY’s Rosa Parks Museum serves as an active memorial to Mrs. Parks’ life and the lessons of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Located in downtown Montgomery on the site of Mrs. Parks’ historic arrest, the museum seeks to honor her legacy and that of the boycott by providing a platform for scholarly dialogue, civic engagement and positive social change.

On Dec. 1, the museum joined Montgomery area churches and organizations in celebrating the inaugural Rosa Parks Day in Alabama, which was made possible by legislation sponsored by Rep. Laura Hall and Sen. Vivian Figures that was unanimously approved by the Alabama Legislature last spring. With passage of the legislation, Alabama became one of four states to designate holidays in honor of Parks, and marked the first holiday in Alabama to honor a woman.