GRAND RAPIDS (AP) -- A Grand Rapids economic development group says it will donate $100,000 toward a $350,000 statue of civil rights icon Rosa Parks to be installed in a downtown park that bears her name.
Mayor George Heartwell says he hopes the pledge will renew interest in the project.
The Grand Rapids Press reports the Downtown Development Authority has pledged $75,000 to cover upfront costs and another $25,000 as a matching grant once the rest of the money that's needed is secured.
Private sources have pledged about $60,000 toward the life-sized statue, which is expected to be erected in Rosa Parks Circle in September 2010.
Parks' actions sparked the yearlong Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott. She died in 2005 in Detroit at age 92.
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