Repo: rosa-parks-institute-1987-1988-chronology
The Detroit Salutes Rosa Parks 75th-birthday souvenir program states:
“The Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, a dream of Mrs. Parks was initiated in February 1987 as a means of establishing a living legacy reflecting the Rosa Parks philosophy.”
Its interior spread is headed Saturday, June 25, 1988. The cover instead uses “Introducing … The Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, Inc.” The organizer’s own primary source thus distinguishes an initiation in February 1987 from a public introduction at the planned June 1988 Detroit tribute. No specific February day, incorporation certificate, or legal-formation date is supplied.
The interior notes Parks’s actual 75th birthday on February 4, 1988; June 25 was a later tribute day. Running order: 8:30–10:30 a.m. prayer breakfast (Judge Damon J. Keith), 3–5 p.m. Ford Auditorium rally (Rep. John Conyers Jr.; Les Brown address), 8–10 p.m. toast at Detroit Historical Museum (Mayor Coleman A. Young). Parks listed for remarks at each; Institute executive director Elaine Steele named. Mays Printing invoice for 300 books stamped PAID June 24 1988 — material prepared before the advertised day, not proof every agenda item happened.
Evidence boundary: “Initiated in February 1987” is the program’s retrospective assertion. It does not equate initiation with legal incorporation, prove that all June 25 venues hosted the intended events, or prove Parks delivered every listed remark. The cover is evidence of how organizers introduced the Institute publicly, not a government filing. A planned December 1988 Washington culmination is a forecast. Contemporary post-event reports and incorporation documents would answer those separate questions.
Significance: one LOC folder now yields both the Prat Buick caption (#51) and a clean two-milestone Institute chronology — initiation 1987 vs public introduction 1988 — preventing a common collapse of “June 25 1988 = founding.”
Source: LOC Rosa Parks Papers, Events 1988, Box 19 Folder 13 — images 8, 9, 15, 16. Sol research note 1 Oct 2026. Pairs with #51 Buick from the same folder.