A statue of Rosa Parks outside of the Alabama State Capitol is unveiled after being in the works for six years. (Andrea Tinker/Alabama Reflector)
Statues of civil rights activist Rosa Parks and disability rights activist Helen Keller were unveiled at the Alabama State Capitol Friday, the first Alabama women to be depicted there.
The dedication ended six years of work by the Alabama Women’s Tribute Statue Commission to get the statues installed.
“Today we gather to lift two legacies, Rosa Parks and Helen Keller. Two women born in Alabama on the soil of this great state with the grit and grace that changed the trajectory of not just our state, but our nation,” Commissioner Tracey Morant Adams said at the ceremony Friday.
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The commission consists of six members with Rep. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville, serving as chair. In 2019, Hall sponsored HB 287, which began the project.
“For the very first time, the grounds of our Capitol will feature statues of women, and what finer examples could there be than Rosa Parks and Helen Keller?” Gov. Kay Ivey asked at the ceremony. “These are two Alabama daughters who were born in small towns who faced extraordinary challenges and yet rose to shape history through quiet strength and unwavering and unwavering conviction.”
The statue of Parks is placed at the front of the Alabama State Capitol near the steps, and near a statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, and J. Marion Sims, an obstetrician who experimented on enslaved women.
A statue of Helen Keller sits on a limestone bench outside of the Alabama State Capitol facing the current State House. The statue was unveiled on Oct. 27, 2025. (Andrea Tinker/Alabama Reflector.)
The statue of Keller is seen behind the building facing the current Alabama State House. That building is set to be demolished and replaced with green space after the completion of the new Alabama Statehouse, expected to be completed in the fall of 2026.
Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile, also spoke at the ceremony. In 2018, Figures sponsored SB 365 which made Dec. 1, the day Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat in the whites only section of a segregated bus to a white man, a state holiday.
“This is such a historical day for Alabama. For us to unveil the first two women’s statues, but those two women are an African American and a caucasian Alabamian, and that just shows you how far we have come as a state,” Figures said.
The Helen Keller statue sits on a limestone bench and depicts Keller reading a book in Braille with her left hand extended as if she is doing tactile lip reading. The plaque on the statue tells Keller’s life story in English and Braille and features the American Sign Language finger spelling alphabet and the Braille alphabet.
“This translation, this opportunity for students to learn is something that must be noted and it is so exciting for all of us to think about the potential of what is to come because of this effort,” Commissioner Annie Butrus said Friday at the unveiling.
The Rosa Parks statue at the front of the State Capitol shows Parks in motion walking up the steps of what would be the bus she was taking nearly 70 years ago on Dec. 1, about a mile from the Capitol down Montgomery’s Dexter Avenue.
“I want you to be reminded of her resolve and commitment to step up, take action, powerfully communicating the thinking behind that action,” Julia Knight, the creator of the statue, said at the unveiling. “Rosa Parks was not a tired seamstress, she was a dedicated activist.”
