Professor recalls bringing Civil Rights artifact to Michigan
Sihang ZhangOn Dec. 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Ala., Rosa Parks' courageous actions on a Montgomery city bus sparked a 381-day bus boycott and what many see as the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.
The bus, No. 2857, became a famous part of American and black history forever and William Pretzer, an associate professor of history at CMU, was influential in acquiring it in 2006 for the Henry Ford Museum.
Pretzer, who was working on the curatorial staff at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, was assigned the task of acquiring the bus for the museum.
"Museum people are always looking for great artifacts, important stories, sites of momentous events," Pretzer said. "The story of Rosa Parks is taught in every school in the United States. It's the dream of museum people to find objects of that connection, that power."
After a long life of service, bus No. 2857 was retired and sold for surplus in 1971. It was bought by Roy H. Summerford for $500.
Summerford used the bus for storage at his property in Alabama. The bus called that field home for nearly thirty years.
After Summerford's death, the bus was passed down to his daughter and son-in-law, Vivian and Donnie Williams. They were well aware of the bus's importance. "That bus will be important to somebody someday," he had said. "It's a part of history."
When Pretzler got to it, the bus was up for sale on an online auction, which included a number of high-profile historic artifacts.
Pretzer said the bidding war to procure the bus was tense. He bid $82,000 initially at noon, and by midnight, the bid was up to $300,000.
"I waited until just after 2 a.m., when a new high bid of $405,000 appeared on my computer screen," he said. "I thought I could break his spirit by bidding quickly and immediately entered the next available bid, $427,919."
Around 2:50 a.m., Pretzer received a phone call. He and the Henry Ford had won the bus.
"The press was there when we brought it in," Pretzer said. "There were live news reports, evening news reports, it received a fair amount of media coverage."
The bus was cleaned up and put on display. On Sunday, December 1, the bus was open for public viewing for one day only.
"People came in huge streams. They were dressed in their Sunday best, and it was very clear they had just come from church," he said. "There were a great number of African-Americans, and they were clearly emotionally involved with the bus."
The bus's journey ended in 2006, when it became the centerpiece of a major exhibit at the museum. The exhibit highlights major movements in the American quest for freedom. It includes materials from George Washington, the chair Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in, and concludes with the Rosa Parks bus.
Pretzer, who now works as the director of the Museum of Cultural and Natural History at CMU, says he enjoyed his time in Dearborn.
"The Henry Ford is one of the two or three greatest U.S. history museums in the United States," he said. "Working there was a dream come true."
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