Rosa Parks stamp unveiled for late civil rights icon's 100th birthday

Councilwoman Joann Watson, from left, Lloyd Wesley, Jr., Detroit postmaster, Elaine Eason Steele, co-founder of the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, and Sen. Carl Levin applaud at the unveiling of the Rosa Parks 100th birthday commemorative postage stamp at the Museum of African American History in Detroit on Monday, Feb. 4, 2013. / David Coates,AP Photo/The Detroit News

DEARBORN, Mich. The U.S. Postal Service has issued a special Rosa Parks stamp on what would have been the late civil rights icon's 100th birthday.

The Rosa Parks Forever Stamp went on sale Monday and its issue is one of several events scheduled throughout the day to honor Parks.

• Photos: Rosa Parks

The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn is hosting a 12-hour celebration featuring speeches, music and presentations.

Event-goers also are being given the opportunity to take a seat on the Rosa Parks bus, which is on permanent display inside the museum.

Parks was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus to a white man, an act that helped bring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to prominence.

Parks later moved to Detroit. She died in 2005.

[Mike202520021500]

Does this mean I will have to place the stamp on the back of the envelope?

[DP530]

We could use another fighter for equality with the passion Rosa Parks had. It's clear right now that America wants this, with the stamp being released and so much attention going to Abraham Lincoln (http://www.empiricalmag.blogspot.com/2013/01/february-excerpt-lincoln-and-radical.html). There is definitely room for improvement in civil rights around the world.