House where Rosa Parks sought refuge displayed, briefly

The rebuilt house of the civil rights activist Rosa Parks in Berlin, Germany. The small, tired house with peeling white paint once served as a refuge for Parks in Detroit. It has traveled across the world and back in an odyssey conceived by Mendoza and a Parks family member determined to preserve the civil rights activist's legacy. Michael Sohn/AP/file 2017

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The house where Rosa Parks sought refuge in Detroit after fleeing the South is being briefly displayed in Rhode Island, after a trans-Atlantic journey and the abrupt cancellation of an exhibition that was supposed to feature it.

Parks moved to Detroit in 1957, two years after refusing to give up her bus seat. She stayed with her brother and his family. Years later, the house was abandoned. Her niece bought it off a demolition list for $500 then donated it to an artist who reassembled it in Germany.

He returned it to America for a Brown University exhibition, but the show was canceled.

Volunteers were able to partially assemble it and it was displayed this weekend.

The house will have to be disassembled, and it’s not clear where it will land.

Volunteers in Providence, R.I. helped reassemble a house where Rosa Parks sought refuge after fleeing the South. The house was on a demolition list in Detroit before Parks' niece bought it for $500 and gave it to artist Ryan Mendoza, who took it piece-by-piece to his home in Berlin. Michelle R. Smith/AP