Rosa Parks Drive in Akron honors woman credited with launching civil-rights movement 
By Stephanie Warsmith
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Tuesday, Feb 02, 2010
Rosa Parks is credited with beginning the civil-rights movement when she refused to give up her seat on a bus.
Akron plans to honor Parks by naming an access road across from the new Metro Transit Center downtown after her.
City Council voted Monday to name the road, which gives buses access to the transit center at 631 S. Broadway, Rosa Parks Drive.
Ophelia Averitt, president of the Akron chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, had been pushing for Akron to recognize Parks.
Dave Lieberth, Akron's deputy mayor for administration, said the street across from the transit center seemed like the perfect tribute.
''God knows, that's it,'' he said.
Averitt, who met Parks, told council members Monday that Parks was kind and soft-spoken. She called Parks, who died in 2005, the ''mother of the civil-rights movement.''
''She would say, 'I'm here for everybody — regardless of race, creed or color,' '' Averitt said.
Parks would have celebrated her 97th birthday Thursday.
The service road, between Broadway and High Street, north of Bartges Street, gives buses access to the one-way High Street.
Lieberth said a ceremony will be conducted this month,
which is Black History Month, or next month, which honors women's history, when two new signs are erected on the road.
The Metro Regional Transit Authority will hang a banner and prepare a display case with information about Parks and the civil-rights movement.
''We're honored to be right next to a street named after her,'' said Molly Becker, a spokeswoman for the transit authority. ''It all started on a bus.''
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com.
