Capitol Tribute For Rosa Parks

The casket of Rosa Parks was carried out of the U.S. Capitol on Monday after more than 30,000 people paid tribute to the woman whose refusal to give up her seat to a white man on an Alabama bus a half-century ago helped inspire the civil rights movement.

The casket was brought down the steps of the Capitol by a military honor guard of pallbearers, followed by her family. It was then taken to a Washington church for a memorial service. Following the hearse was an old Washington, D.C. bus, draped in black bunting, along with other city buses.

She was the first woman to lie in honor in the Rotunda. Parks died last week in Detroit at the age of 92.

Among the last people to view the casket before it left the Capitol Rotunda was President Bush's new Supreme Court nominee, Samuel Alito, escorted by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

There was an honor guard of police by the coffin and several large flower wreaths, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss (audio).

"I want to say thank you to a woman who provided me with the opportunity I've had through life as well as the opportunity she created for my kids," said one visitor.

Many brought children and grandchildren in tow for a final farewell to the woman known to many as the mother of the 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-Episopal 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.

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 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 Monday.

Parks also was being remembered Monday at a memorial service at the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church in Washington and will then lie in repose at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit.

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."

Mr. 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 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."

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.