Citing free speech, Rosa Parks house artist pushes forward

e artist who turned a house in Detroit where Rosa Parks once lived into an art piece says he’s working to ensure the home is displayed in Rhode Island even after Brown University pulled its support.

Ryan Mendoza says he has a First Amendment right to show the house.

e Ivy League institution told a donor who helped pay for the project that it was threatened with legal action by an institute that claims to own the rights to Parks’ name.

Mendoza is working with a local arts group for legal help and to nd the money and other support they need to move forward. He said in an interview Sunday he has a right to continue.

“It’s a bit presumptuous on the part of Brown that they would consider themselves as having the possibility of cancelling the show. is show cannot be cancelled,” Mendoza said in an interview next to the house that has been partially reassembled in an arts centre in Providence.

e tiny house was owned by Parks’ brother, and people including relatives, neighbours and others have said she lived there for a time after she ed the south amid death threats for refusing to give up her bus seat. Her brother later lost the home to foreclosure and the house ended up on a demolition list. Parks’ niece, Rhea Mccauley, bought it for $500 and connected with Mendoza, who had worked with abandoned homes in Detroit. She gave it to Mendoza, who took it apart piece by piece and shipped it to Germany, were he reassembled it in his yard in Berlin.

ere, it drew a steady stream of visitors and gained a higher pro le.