http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/18/national/18parks.html wrote:
Legal Cloud Lingers for Rosa Parks
DETROIT, Oct. 16 - Nearly half a century after Rosa Parks helped set off the American civil rights movement by refusing to move to the back of a segregated bus, she is at the center of a swirling legal controversy that her relatives say could forever taint her legacy...
The fight stems in part from litigation that has been filed in her name but that her relatives doubt she knows about. They say her longtime caretaker and confidante, Elaine Steele, and her lawyers are seeking monetary settlements for their own gain.
Ms. Steele is the co-founder of the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, which could share in the proceeds from any settlement. She contends that the suits, over a song invoking her name, are meant to protect Ms. Parks's reputation. Her family argues that they trivialize it...
The suit involves a song called "Rosa Parks" that is a protest against the way recording companies treat artists. It does not mention Ms. Parks beyond the title, but it includes the line, "Ah ha, hush that fuss/ Everybody move to the back of the bus." The suit alleges that the song, recorded by the hip-hop group OutKast, defamed her and violated her trademark rights..."
Who here has heard the song? Do you feel that it trivializes her role as a civil rights symbol? Do you think it matters even if so? I remember hearing this song and just thinking it was tasteless on the part of OutKast. They really do like to think of themselves as Martyr figures...but the critique of their use of her history just shed poor light on themselves, not her. It didn't really get to me in those terms. I just though OutKast could have come up with a better historic figure to appropriate for their parallel. Elvis possibly...
