Effort possible to wipe arrest records of MLK and Rosa Parks

The quest by a civil rights icon to expunge her arrest record is raising the possibility of similar action on behalf of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, junior and Rosa Parks. Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus for a white passenger, months before Parks did, likewise, earning international acclaim as a civil rights icon. That act helped prompt Montgomery bus boycott. King spent time in the Birmingham jail where he wrote letters, in part, to praise the desegregation effort of Spring Hill College in Mobile, which is home to Alabama Public Radio’s Gulf coast station WHIL-FM. Colvin’s effort to have her arrest record wiped clean after nearly 70 years after she protested racial segregation has raised the possibility of similar bids to clear the names of Parks and King in Alabama. King and Park’s attorney, Fred Gray, says their convictions remain on the books. And he says an effort is possible to clear their names after Colvin asked a judge to expunge her arrest and conviction records. Gray’s voice leads off Alabama Public Radio’s international award winning documentary on MLK, titled “The King of Alabama.” This program includes reporting from the West African nation of Mali, where APR’s international exchange journalist Ousmane Sagara interviewed Malian citizens on how they feel about King fifty years after his assassination.