After five years, Rosa Parks lawsuit against Outkast will finally be heard in a court of law. Stemming from the 1998 song “Rosa Parks”, the original Rosa Parks said her name and likeness was used without permission. With lyrics like “Hush that fuss/ Everybody move to the back of the bus”, Rosa Parks lawyers including Johnnie Cochran feel that Outkast and their record company exploited her name for the sake of music.
“The fact that defendants cry ‘artist’ and ‘symbol’ as reasons for appropriating Rosa Parks’ name for a song title does not absolve them from potential liability for, in the words of Shakespeare, filching Rosa Parks’ good name,” the three-judge panel of the US court of Appeals said. Since 1998 the album featuring the song has sold more than three million dollars. A trial date has been set for January 10th. Although the details for the trial have not been worked completely out Rosa Parks proposed list of witnesses that may be called include Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Coretta Scott King, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, U.S. Appeals Judge Damon Keith, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, U.S. Rep. John Conyers and Dearborn Mayor Michael Guido.
