Rosa Parks, the civil-rights icon who refused to give her bus seat to white man in 1955, has become the centerpiece of the kind of posthumous peddling usually associated with athletes and Hollywood
stars. The Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development--the organization that Mrs. Parks charged with safeguarding her image--hired CMG Worldwide to get a handle on the widespread misuse of
her name on everything from T-shirts to coffee mugs.
While licensing experts estimate the current value of selling Mrs. Parks' image at only six figures a year, they say that over time those
who control her likeness will make millions. CMG recently negotiated an estimated six-figure deal with General Motors on behalf of the Parks estate. In a new 60-second Chevrolet commercial, a staged
1956 photo by United Press International of Mrs. Parks sitting in front of a white man on a different bus appears amid a blizzard of Americana images. Her likeness has also appeared in a well-known
Apple Computer ad that affixed the label "Think Different" to the bus passenger photo.
Meanwhile, 12 of Parks's 13 nieces and nephews, her closest surviving relatives, have challenged her
will in a probate court in Detroit. It leaves them out of the decision-making process, and out of nearly all of the money when it comes to licensing her name and image.
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