Rosa Parks is being enshrined in stone at the National Cathedral:
Rosa Parks enshrined in stone at National Cathedral
By ADELLE M. BANKS from Religion News Service
Six feet above the vaulted entranceway to Washington National Cathedral, the rough contours of Rosa Parks’ face are taking shape.
Using a motorized hammer and chiseling tools that date back centuries, stone carver Sean Callahan is patiently working on a new bust of the civil rights heroine.
“I have to be aware of the significance of it,” he said. “It puts pressure on me to get it right. I have to pay respect to her in that sense.”
Across the Human Rights “porch” in the cathedral’s narthex, Parks will soon be joined by another famous woman, Mother Teresa.
Callahan, a 45-year-old Catholic, was not alive when Parks made history by staying seated on a segregated bus and helping spark the civil rights movement; but he remembers hearing about the Nobel Peace Prize-winning nun when he was growing up.