Rosa Parks

WASHINGTON — Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus, reflected later on how it felt to be treated less than equal and once feistily wrote of how tired she was of being “pushed around” — parts of her history long hidden away.

Now at the Library of Congress, researchers and the public will have full access to Parks’ archive of letters, writings, personal notes and photographs for the first time. The collection will provide what experts call a more complex view of a woman long recalled in history for one iconic image — that of a nonviolent seamstress who inspired others to act at the dawning of the civil rights era.

A protracted legal battle between her heirs and friends had kept the collection from public view for years. But in 2014, philanthropist Howard Buffett bought the collection and placed it on long-term loan at the national library. The Associated Press has previously reported on the legal wrangling that kept Parks’ archive warehoused for years. Until now, scholars have had very limited, if any, access to the materials.

Parks, who died in 2005 at 92, is beloved in American history for her civil disobedience on a Montgomery, Ala., bus.

That defining moment in 1955 triggered a yearlong bus boycott that helped dismantle a system of segregation.