Feb. 4 is Rosa Parks, the mother of the civil rights movement’s 111th birthday.
While living in Detroit, she created the Rosa Parks Scholarship Foundation. This year, the scholarship amount is increasing to $2,500 per student, and now a family member of Rosa Parks’ is joining the foundation board.
Erica Thedford is Rosa Parks’ great niece; her grandfather is Parks’ brother.
“I didn’t know who she was to everybody else, she was just Auntie Rosa to us,” said Thedford.
It wasn’t until Thedford was older that she realized how big of a deal her aunt really was.
During her childhood, Thedford lived with Parks and told Local 4 her aunt would stress the value of education.
“And how you need to have that foundation of always being able to fall back on that because that’s something that no one can take from you,” Thedford said.
It’s now become a passion of Thedford’s to never stop learning. She also recently joined the Rosa Parks Scholarship Foundation Board.
The foundation has awarded more than $2.5 million in scholarships to 1,300 Michigan high school seniors, including Shawntay Lewis.
“This was kind of the push for me to go to college, to go to Wayne State,” said Lewis.
As a 2021 scholarship recipient, she received $2,000 and internship opportunities at The Detroit News. She’s currently in her junior year at Wayne State University, double majoring in Broadcast Journalism and Spanish.
“It’s like I’m bringing a legacy to my family but I’m also carrying Ms. Parks family and her legacy,” Lewis said.
For a family member of Parks to be this hands-on and share personal family stories means a lot to Lewis, who is a first-generation college student.
“It’s more support for us to do it and go to college,” Lewis said.
Thedford said, “I’m not Rosa Parks, I didn’t do anything special like that, but this can be special, just to reach the person next door.”
The deadline for the Rosa Parks Scholarship application is March 1, 2024. Requirements include a high school graduation date by August 2024 and a GPA of 2.5 or higher.