. >> reporter: adrian cannon curated the collection, which contain morse than 7,000 of parks' writings>> "i have been pushed around all my life, and i felt at this moment i couldn't take it anymore." >> reporter: but cannon says while writing, often on recycled paper, parks found her voice, strategizing against segregation. >> it was mrs. parks' plan all along to do everything she could in order to get equality for african americans. >> reporter: fred gray was fresh out of law school in 1954 when he worked with parks and the naacp to counsel blacks jailed under segregation laws. >> my first civil rights case was claudette cardin, the 15-year-old girl who on march 2nd, 1955 did the same thing that rosa parks did, but did it nine months before. >> reporter: colvin's case may have set an example, but not the stage. that came on december 1st, 1955. >> i was on that bus. >> reporter: jane gunter, a then pregnant military wife is the only other person to admit she was there. >> all of the sudden there was a tall man standing in front of me. i stood up and said she can have my seat. and when

and library manuscript specialist adrian cannon, who was a descendent of carter g woodson, father of black history, showed me the collection, and she carefully presented to me the different photographs and letters and private notes handwritten by misses rosa parks, and adrian is here tonight and is the proud curator of the exhibition. [applause] from the first moment i saw her family bible followed by all of her personal letters and writings, i felt the overwhelming power of the collection. letter she wrote after the arrest, i had been pushed around all my life and felt at this moment that i could not take it anymore. i knew then when i read those words that we had to share these papers with the public for much broader viewers, and in this wonderful exhibit, through her own words, the rosa parks you will discover was not always writing for publication or posterity. she was writing in a moment and for herself. this is not the rosa parks we all met in textbooks or public service announcements. complex, the very very human, and the very real rosa parks. her powerful story and her long f