The one-time home of US civil rights legend Rosa Parks has gone on display inside the Royal Palace of Naples in Italy.

 

Ms Parks came to world prominence when, in 1955, she refused to give up her seat on a racially segregated bus.

 

On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger and was arrested for civil disobedience.

 

It became a leading moment in the US civil rights moment. For her, though, she received death threats and moved north to Detroit, where she briefly lived in the white clapboard house with relatives.

 

The incident led to a year-long bus boycott in the city and in November 1956, a federal court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional, and Parks was immortalised as a key figure in the fight against institutionalised racism.

 

Detroit city authorities planned to demolish the two-storey building after the financial crisis in 2008. But Parks' niece Rhea McCauley bought it from Detroit officials for $500 and sold it to US artist Ryan Mendoza.

 

In 2016, after trying to have the city save the building, he took it apart and moved it to Berlin for display at his studio.

 

Two years later, in 2018, Brown University in Rhode Island said it would display the house as part of a civil rights exhibition, but then dropped out because of a legal dispute with her family. Mr Mendoza later contacted the Morra Greco Foundation where he previously worked who agreed to show the house at the Royal Palace in Naples, with the backing of the regional government in Campania.

 

The display is part of an exhibition called Almost Home - The Rosa Parks House Project.

 

A repeating soundtrack titled ‘8:46’ plays alongside the displayed house, in reference to the length of time police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on the neck of George Floyd in May.

 

His killing sparked international protests and condemnation of police brutality and racism in the US.

 

As she lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington DC the US Congress referred to Rosa Parks as "The First Lady of Civil Rights."

 

After a legal dispute, the house is now on display in Italy.