"Both Sally Ride and Rosa Parks made the world better for future generations of girls," a Mattel spokesperson told CNN. "By celebrating their achievements with dolls made in their likeness, we hope girls will be inspired to pursue their dreams."
We’re adding two courageous women to the #Barbie Inspiring Women Series – Civil Rights activist, Rosa Parks, and the first American woman to fly in space, Sally Ride.
— Barbie (@Barbie) August 26, 2019
Barbie Sally Ride doll: @Target
Barbie Rosa Parks doll: @Walmart
Or pre-order now: https://t.co/mnRXP0Sro3 pic.twitter.com/hZIdchCV1p
Parks is celebrated for her pivotal role in the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott. She worked with activists -- including members of the NAACP and Martin Luther King Jr. -- to organize a protest to draw national attention to the boycott, famously sitting in the "whites only" section of a bus and refusing to move in 1955. Her resistance launched the Montgomery bus boycott and led to the desegregation of the transportation system. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996.
Parks died in 2005 in Detroit at age 92. She had been diagnosed with progressive dementia the year before.
Ride is the first American woman in space and is also the first acknowledged gay astronaut. In addition to being the first American woman to go into space, she was the youngest American to go into space when she joined five others aboard the space shuttle Challenger STS-7 on June 18, 1983, at age 32.
Ride died of pancreatic cancer in 2012. She was posthumously honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013. Her partner, Tam O’Shaugnessy, accepted the medal.
CNN reported that each doll comes with clothes authentic to the time in which Parks and Ride gained notoriety in addition to an educational pamphlet on their work.
The dolls are available for $30.99. The Sally Ride doll is available at Barbie.com and Target. The Rosa Parks doll appears to be sold out at Barbie.com, but is also being sold at Walmart, according to Mattel.
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