Remembering 'Auntie Rosa' author coming to Montgomery

Two years after Rosa Parks refused to give up her Montgomery bus seat and kicked off the civil rights movement, Parks and her husband, Raymond, moved to Detroit, Michigan, bringing along Rosa's mother, to be close to the family of Parks' only sibling, Sylvester McCauley.

History doesn't shed a lot of light on the Parks' lives in Detroit — it would seem that the couple, childless, retreated into a quiet, solitary existence.

But Sylvester McCauley and his wife, Daisy, had 15 children, making for a lively welcome up north, and their lives were transformed by close family relationships. Though the public will remember Rosa Parks as that stolid, reserved icon sitting on the bus, the McCauley children came to know a warm, nurturing woman who became like a second mother to them.

"Our Auntie Rosa: The Family of Rosa Parks Remembers Her Life and Lessons" (Tarcher/Penguin, Jan. 2015), a book by Parks' seventh niece, Sheila McCauley Keys, with Eddie B. Allen Jr., chronicles that period of Parks' life.

In celebration of Parks' birthday, at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Keys will read from and sign copies of her book at the Rosa Parks Museum in downtown Montgomery. Also making the trip will be some of Keys' siblings and their own children.

Keys was born two years after her aunt and uncle arrived in Detroit. This will be her first visit to the city in which her aunt made history, and she is excited. We talked to Keys by phone from her home in Detroit as she prepared to make the trip.

What did your Aunt Rosa say when she opened up about what happened in 1955?

Sheila McCauley Keys: My sister Shirley, when she was an adult, asked my aunt what happened on the bus, and she went into detail about the Jim Crow laws. You couldn't sit close to the white section. You always hear about how she was physically tired, but she said she was just tired of the way people of color were being treated — seeing this from a small child to the age of 42 — and nothing being done about it. She was really worn out over the injustice of it all. She tried to explain it to the press, but they ran with the story of her being tired and needing to sit down.

My aunt was even-tempered. Her voice didn't waver. She would just tell you what took place.

This particular bus driver didn't care for my aunt. He knew from just seeing her in the neighborhood that she was working with the NAACP, trying to get people registered to vote, and he saw her as an agitator. There had to be a row between the black and white people no matter where they sat on the bus, and the bus driver wanted her to move. She would not do it. There was plenty of space on the bus. I had always heard a different story, that the bus was full of people, that some people were standing. When I learned the real story I said, 'Wow, this is crazy.' Living today, you would never think about something like that.

What was the personal side of Rosa Parks that few people knew about?

She was a mother figure. Just a warm, thoughtful, easygoing, generous, even-tempered, quick-witted and wise woman. She taught us to give, but also to stand up and fight for what we thought was right. When my mother died in 1981, she stepped in and became a mother to all of us. My father had died in 1979. She became the matriarch of our family. She came and stayed with me in New Jersey for a week when my son was born. She knew to come there; I thought that was the most loving thing.

When my mother and father were married, they moved from Montgomery to Detroit. My oldest siblings, Sylvester Jr. and Mary, stayed with Auntie Rosa and Uncle Parks (as Raymond was known) until my parents found a home in Detroit. The day my mom went back and picked up my brother and sister, Mary said she would never forget Aunt Rosa at the train station. Mary cried and cried, like she was ripped from her mother. Auntie Rosa had strong maternal instincts. She was never able to have children on her own. But she had those instincts. She was a very nurturing person, and I loved that about her.

My grandmother, mother and Auntie Rosa would cook, and that house always smelled so good. I remember little silver dollars of cornbread, griddle cakes, apple butter, fruit compote, chicken and dumplings. They kept their recipes in their head. They knew by taste, smell, touch. I was always trying to peek around the corner of the kitchen and watch, but they didn't want kids underfoot. There were so many children, they ran us out of the kitchen. But my sister Deborah, who is 10 years older, was allowed to stay. She said they all wore aprons, and my grandmother would sing "A Closer Walk with Thee" while they were cooking. I thought that was the most beautiful story, ever.

How does it feel to be part of such a significant civil rights legacy?

I didn't think about it much when I was young. I just saw her as my aunt, somebody that took care of me, nurtured me, fed me. But the older I get, the more I am realizing the significance of her legacy, of what she did to change this country and to change the world. Actually, I think it is a great honor to be her blood relative, and it does carry a responsibility.

That motivated me to write the book, to continue her legacy. I have two sons and two grandsons, and I want to leave them our family legacy as well, to tell them what their aunt did, and this is what we're doing to continue her work. It has to travel down.

"Our Auntie Rosa" is a collaboration of all the family members' experiences with our aunt. Several family members wrote their remembrances just to let people know what a wonderful, wonderful personal she really was.

WHAT: Sheila McCauley Keys, neice of Rosa Parks will read from and sign copies of her book, "Our Auntie Rosa"

WHEN: 5:30 p.m. Wednesday

WHERE: The Troy University Rosa Parks Museum, 252 Montgomery St. in downtown Montgomery

ADMISSION: Free. The museum will also be leading free tours of the museum to celebrate the anniversary of Rosa Parks' 102nd birthday/