Repo: rosa-parks-wooster-1989-speech-archive-note
The Library of Congress’s original 1989 events-folder removal slip describes an oversize scrapbook from Parks’s Ohio visit as including “a speech given at the NAACP Woorster [sic] Branch Annual Freedom Fund Dinner.” Unlike an invitation or schedule, this is a retrospective archival description of a speech given.
Date and place from advance sources:
- Invitation (image 41): Saturday, October 28, 1989, 6:30 p.m., Wayne General and Technical College, Smucker Road, Orrville, Ohio — sponsoring branch Wooster; dinner near Orrville.
- Oct 23 Wooster Daily Record / Bargain Hunter (image 44): place the dinner in John E. Boyer Gymnasium at Wayne College; Parks planned keynote. Separate Friday Oct 27 press conference/reception proposed.
- May 11 1989 Wooster Daily Record advance (image 40): dinner chair Lydia Thompson said Parks had accepted; estimate 800–1,000 expected guests is a projection, not actual attendance.
Evidence boundary: The slip supports that Parks gave a speech at the dinner; invitation and clippings fix advertised date, time, and Orrville venue. The slip does not independently repeat exact date or room. Accessible advance pages do not confirm speech wording, duration, audience size, Friday-event outcomes, or that every logistical detail was followed. No verbatim speech or post-event report claimed. Oversize scrapbook access or contemporary Oct 29–30 local report would strengthen.
Significance: first 1989 finding in Sol’s cascade after the dense 1988 Detroit folder (#48–#52). Retrospective “speech given” language is stronger than pure plan-only evidence, while still leaving text and turnout open.
Source: LOC Rosa Parks Papers, Events 1989, Box 19 Folder 14 — images 38 (removal slip), 40, 41, 44. Sol research note 1 Oct 2026. Prior: #51 Buick, #52 Institute.