Little Caesars founder quietly paid Rosa Parks’ rent for years By Eric Levenson. 2 minute read Published 11:52 AM EST, Wed February 15, 2017 Link Copied! Little Caesars founder Mike Ilitch Mike Ilitch reportedly once paid the rent of civil rights activist Rosa Parks when she moved into a Detroit apartment complex in 1994. decided in 2004 to allow Parks to live there rent-free Mike Ilitch, the former Detroit Tigers and Red Wings owner who died last week, quietly paid the rent for civil rights icon Rosa Parks during her later years. Ilitch was known for his philanthropic The judge said Ilitch paid Parks' mortgage until the day she died in 2005. Parks is known as "The First Lady of Civil Rights," after she refused to give up her seat to a white person on a bus, sparking a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, which then led to nationwide protests to end segregation in public facilities. The late founder of the company paid Rosa Parks' rent for 11 years before her death & the family are great Dems. Better yet, if you've got a good local shop, do that. After Ilitch read about Parks’ search in the newspaper, he contacted Keith and offered to pay for Parks’ rent ($2,000 a month) in perpetuity. In total, Ilitch paid for Parks’ rent from 1994 until her death in 2005. Mike Ilitch paid her rent until she died in 2005. Rosa Parks was most known for launching the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger in Montgomery Shortly after her famed defiance of segregation sparked the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, Parks moved to Detroit and became an important presence in the city for years afterward. For over ten years, the Detroit businessman paid the rent of civil rights icon Rosa Parks, according to a 2014 news article from Sports Business Daily. Though locally reported, the information was Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks sits in a 1950s-era bus in Alabama, in this 1995 file photo, 40 years after she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white person. AP With a headline blaring “Mike Ilitch paid for Rosa Parks’ housing for more than a decade,” the TV station’s story is just not true. The headline repeats itself on national black media sites and elsewhere. Not true. By all accounts, but particularly an Associated Press report from December 2004, Parks fell behind on her rent in 2002 Here's a heartwarming story you may have missed about the team owner and pizza magnate: Ilitch reportedly once paid for civil rights activist Rosa Parks' rent when she moved into Riverfront Shortly after her famed defiance of segregation sparked the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, Parks moved to Detroit and became an important presence in the city for years afterward. In 1955, Rosa Parks very publicly changed the lives of countless others. In 1994, one person secretly helped to change hers. When Parks was assaulted and robbed in her home at the age of 81, the founder of Little Caesars (and the owner of both the Detroit Tigers and Detroit Red Wings) stepped up. Ilitch paid for her to move to a new secure high-rise and offered to keep paying the rent for the rest of her life (in her final years, a church would pay her rent, and then the building owner finally let her stay there for free). He didn't publicize the move, and no one knew about it till Keith revealed it after Ilitch died a couple years back Giving In Silence: For Decades, Little Caesars Pizza Founder Paid Rosa Parks’ Rent Paying Rosa Parks’ rent was one the entrepreneur's many generous actions. He died last week at the age of 87. Rosa Parks is fingerprinted by Dep. Sheriff D.H. Lackey in Montgomery, Ala., on Feb. 22, 1956, two months after refusing to give up her seat on a bus for a white passenger on Dec. 1, 1955. The news of Mike Illitch paying for Rosa Parks' rent resurfaced following his death this year on February But Illitch did not just stop there — he also paid her rent up until her death in 2005. Mike Ilitch, the founder of Little Caesar’s, quietly paid for Rosa Parks’ rent after learning she had been robbed and assaulted in her home at the age of 81 in 1994. He helped her move to a safer neighborhood and continued to pay her rent until she died in 2005. Ilitch read the story in the newspaper, contacted Keith and offered to pay her rent for the rest of her life, which he did until Parks died in 2005. Ilitch’s help, without any fanfare, showed
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