Rosa Parks

[One Eyed Cat]

Parks Remembered for Her Courage, Strength

By KEN THOMAS, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 16 minutes ago


Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks was remembered Monday as a courageous woman whose defiance in the face of segregation helped inspire the architects of the civil rights movement and set an example for generations to follow.

An overflow crowd of mourners joined official Washington to pay tribute to the woman whose refusal to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., city bus helped galvanize the modern civil rights movement.

"We are here not because Rosa Parks died but because she lived graciously, effectively and purposely, touching the lives of millions," said Bishop Adam Jefferson Richardson of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Richardson called Parks a "woman of quiet strength" who was "noble without pretense, regal in her simplicity, courageous without being bombastic."

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., said Parks' refusal to give up her seat "was the functional equivalent of a nonviolent shot heard round the world."

Parks' life was celebrated at the church, where several hundred people were listening to tributes by Oprah Winfrey, NAACP chairman Julian Bond, Sen. Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting record), R-Kan., and Rep. John Conyers (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., for whom Parks worked in his Detroit congressional office for more than two decades.

In attendance was Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Rep. John Lewis (news, bio, voting record), D-Ga., Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) and Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean.

A painting of the elderly Parks rested above her mahogany coffin at the center of the altar, which was lined with flower arrangements. A large wooden crucifix loomed over the choir, which led the crowd in singing "Lift Every Voice and Sing."

Earlier, more than 30,000 people filed silently by her casket in the Capitol Rotunda in hushed reverence, beginning Sunday night and continuing until well pas sunrise Monday.

Frist accompanied new Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito and his family to the Rotunda, where they paused in silent remembrance. Several senators joined the procession.

Elderly women carrying purses, young couples holding hands and small children in the arms of their parents reverently proceeded around the raised wooden casket. A Capitol Police spokeswoman, Sgt. Jessica Gissubel, said more than 30,000 passed through the Rotunda since Sunday evening, when the viewing began.

"I rejoice that my country recognizes that this woman changed the course of American history, that this woman became a cure for the cancer of segregation," said the Rev. Vernon Shannon, 68, pastor of John Wesley African-Methodist-Episcopal Zion in Washington, one of many who rose before dawn to see the casket.

Many were overcome by emotion. Monica Grady, 47, of Greenbelt, Md., was moved to tears, she said, that Parks was "so brave at the time without really knowing the consequences" of her actions.

Bathed in a spotlight, Parks' casket stood in the center of a Rotunda that includes a bronze bust of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who led the 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system that helped initiate the modern civil rights movement.

In preparation for a memorial service, her casket was taken down the steps of the East Capitol by a military honor guard of pallbearers, followed by her family. A vintage Metropolitan bus dressed in black bunting followed the hearse, along with other city buses.

Parks, a former seamstress, became the first woman to lie in honor in the Rotunda, sharing the tribute bestowed upon Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and other national leaders.

Parks, who died last Monday at 92, was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man, an incident that inspired King and helped touch off the civil rights movement.



President Bush, who presented a wreath Sunday night at a Capitol Hill ceremony, ordered the U.S. flag to be flown at half-staff over all public buildings Wednesday, the day of Parks' funeral and burial in Detroit.

___ Associated Press writers Jeffrey McMurray and Juan-Carlos Rodriguez in Washington contributed to this report.

[Rockwulf]

There are three things that Black people need to tell the truth about. Number one: Rodney King should've gotten his ass beat for being drunk in a Honda a white part of Los Angeles. Number two: O.J. did it! And number three: Rosa Parks didn't do nuthin' but sit her Black ass down!

[Vitorro]

Truly an amazing woman who helped to right a injustice to many people, and an inspiration to even more in the world.

[RobLongshot]

ROFLOL @ Rockwulf