Washington – More than 30,000 Americans streamed through the U.S. Capitol Rotunda to pay tribute today to Rosa Parks, filing by her casket in hushed awe of the woman whose defiant act on a city bus inspired the modern civil rights movement.
“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.
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.
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.
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. President Bush and congressional leaders gathered for a brief ceremony Sunday night, listening as members of Baltimore’s Morgan State University choir sang “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” 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.
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., in whose Detroit congressional office Parks worked for years, said the ceremony and public viewing showed “the legacy of Rosa Parks is more than just a success for the civil rights movement or for African-Americans. It means it’s a national honor.” People began gathering outside the Capitol before noon Sunday and the line of well-wishers and mourners slowly pushed along into the early morning hours today.
Parks also was being remembered today at a memorial service at the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church in Washington and was then to lie in repose at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. The program at the Washington memorial service included tributes by Oprah Winfrey, NAACP chairman Julian Bond, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Conyers.
At the Capitol ceremony Sunday, Senate chaplain Barry Black said Parks’ courage “ignited a movement that aroused our national conscience” and served as an example of the “power of fateful, small acts.” Bush, who presented a wreath but did not speak at the ceremony, issued a proclamation ordering the U.S. flag to be flown at half-staff over all public buildings Wednesday, the day of Parks’ funeral and burial in Detroit.
The president and first lady Laura Bush were joined by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., acting House majority leader Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and other members of Congress.
“She was a citizen in the best sense of the word,” said Sen.
Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. “She caused things to happen in our society that made us a better, more caring, more just society.” Among those paying respect was Ann Durr Lyon, 78, of Harrisburg, Pa., whose parents, Virginia and Clifford Durr, helped bail out Parks following her arrest. Lyon carried with her a typewritten tribute to the civil rights pioneer, noting her mother “is in heaven waiting for her friend. Mrs. Parks will light up God’s heaven – FREE AT LAST!” Cecil Canady, 55, made the trip from Mount Laurel, N.J., and emerged realizing how important it was for him to pay his respects.
“I lived during those years and grew up in a segregated society. I remember having to walk to the back of the bus, or upstairs at the movie theater, or not being able to use the same drinking fountains,” Canady said. “I’m reflecting on how far we’ve come and how far we have to go.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid tribute to Parks at a service in Montgomery, Ala., earlier Sunday. She said she and others who grew up in Alabama during the height of Parks’ activism might not have realized her impact on their lives, “but I can honestly say that without Mrs. Parks, I probably would not be standing here today as secretary of state.” Rice was joined by an overflow crowd at St. Paul A.M.E. Church, where Parks had lain in honor since Saturday. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley credited Parks with inspiring protests against social injustice around the world.
