Defiant, she peers out from the frame, rising serene above the forces that would shackle her to the earth, gazing to the hope of a new dawn.
Last fall, city workers installed 100 commemorative street sign toppers along Rosa Parks Way. The laser-cut, powder-coated toppers honor the legacy of Rosa Parks, the civil-rights icon who refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger, sparking the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955.
The toppers were a joint project of Office of Arts & Culture, the Portland Bureau of Transportation, and the Piedmont Neighborhood Association. But they would never have been brought to life without the work of another icon – Portland artist, painter, and educator Arvie Smith.
January 30, 2026
