1956 Handbill advertising a Rosa Parks speaking appearance in Springfield MA

So much history in a small package.

This Rare Handbill is an advertisement for a speech by Rosa Parks at Bethel AME Church in Springfield, Massachusetts. Sponsored by the NAACP in 1956. "Hear the Woman Who Set-Off The Montgomery Bus Boycott: Mrs. Rosa Parks". This talk would have been less than a year after Mrs. Parks began the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott movement by refusing to give up her seat on December 1, 1955.

Originally acquired by the collector I purchased it from at the Maude Ballou Civil Rights Papers auction. Ms. Ballou was Martin Luther King's secretary. Does another example even exist?

Measures about 8" inches x 5 1/2'' inches (one 8 1/2" x 11" standard sheet of paper cut in half).