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Exhibition Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words

Holy Bible, with a register of family births, marriages, and deaths. C. H. Robinson and Co., 1900. Rosa Parks Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (008.00.00)
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The Family Bible

This Bible register partially charts Rosa’s maternal lineage. Accordingly, her great grandfather James Percival, an indentured servant of Scots-Irish descent, married Mary Jane Nobles, an enslaved African. Their daughter Rose married Sylvester Edwards, the son of white planter John Edwards and his enslaved housekeeper and seamstress. They had three daughters: Fannie, Bessie, and Leona Edwards, Rosa’s mother.