Public Interest In Rosa Parks Overrides Publicity Right

Circuit Judge Rosenbaum wrote that Parks inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted more than a year until the U.S. Supreme Court held the city's segregation law unconstitutional and ordered desegregation of the buses. “Parks' refusal to cede ground in the face of continued injustice has made her among the most revered heroines of our national story; her role in history cannot be overemphasized,” Judge Rosenbaum wrote. “It is in the general public interest to relentlessly preserve, spotlight and recount the story of Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement ' even when that interest allegedly conflicts with an individual right of publicity.”

The supporting law lies in Michigan's qualified privilege for matters of public concern regarding the right of publicity, which is a variation on the right to privacy. Michigan law applied because that's where Parks lived at the time of her death in 2005.

“Of course, it is beyond dispute that Rosa Parks is a figure of great historical significance,” wrote Judge Robin Rosenbaum, writing for a panel that included Judge Julie Carnes and Senior Judge Joel Dubina.

The Eleventh Circuit added that the civil rights movement is “a matter of legitimate and important public interest.” The appeals court went on to say that five of the six books and the movie in question were “all bona fide works of nonfiction discussing Parks and her role” in the movement. And the sixth book, Childhood of Famous Americans:Rosa Parks, by Kathleen Kudlinshi, is a fictionalized biography meant to introduce children to the icon, which also “concerns a matter of public interest.”

The Eleventh Circuit described the plaque sold in Target stores as “emblazoned with the title, 'Civil Rights.' Besides Parks's photograph and a statement of the years that she lived, the plaque included the word, 'CHANGE,' and it contained a photograph and diagram of the bus where Parks threw down the Civil Rights Movement gauntlet, as well as a picture of the Congressional Gold Medal that Parks was later awarded. Overlaid on the photograph of Parks and Dr. [Martin Luther] King was the statement, 'People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. ' I was not old ' I was forty two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

According to the appeals court: “The institute has not articulated any argument as to why Michigan's qualified privilege for matters of public concern would not apply to these works, in light of the conspicuous historical importance of Rosa Parks. Nor can we conceive of any.”

The Eleventh Circuit continued: “The use of Rosa Parks's name and likeness in the books, movie, and plaque are necessary to chronicling and discussing the history of the Civil Rights Movement ' matters quintessentially embraced and protected by Michigan's qualified privilege. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive of a discussion of the Civil Rights Movement without reference to Parks and her role in it. And Michigan law does not make discussion of these topics of public concern contingent on paying a fee. As a result, all six books, the movie, and the plaque find protection in Michigan's qualified privilege protecting matters of public interest.”

The Parks Institute is represented by Gwendolyn Thomas Kennedy of Kennedy Law Group in Montgomery, AL. Target is represented by Helen Kathryn Downs of Butler Snow's Birmingham office.

In 2005, shortly before she died, Parks had settled a long-running suit she brought against the hip-hop group OutKast for using her name as the title of a song.

Katheryn Hayes Tucker reports for the Atlanta-based Daily Report, an ALM affiliate of Entertainment Law & Finance.