Remembering Rosa
Congress readied plans Friday to give civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks a farewell fit for presidents by allowing her to become the first woman to lie in repose in the Capitol Rotunda.
Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955 led to a 381-day boycott of the city's bus system and helped spark the modern civil rights movement. She died Monday in Detroit at age 92.
"The movement that Rosa Parks helped launch changed not only our country, but the entire world, as her actions gave hope to every individual fighting for civil and human rights," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "We now can honor her in a way deserving of her contributions and legacy."
The Senate approved a resolution Thursday night allowing her remains to lie in honor in the Rotunda on Sunday and Monday "so that the citizens of the United States may pay their last respects to this great American." The House is expected to pass the resolution Friday.
Parks would be the first woman and second black American to receive the accolade. Jacob J. Chestnut, one of two Capitol police officers fatally shot in 1998, was the first black American to lie in honor, said Senate historian Richard Baker.
The most recent person to lie in repose in the Capitol was President Reagan in 2004.
"Rosa Parks is not just a national hero, she is the embodiment of our social and human conscience and the spark that lit the flame of liberty and equality for African Americans and minority groups in this country and around the globe," said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.
The Capitol event is one of several planned to honor the civil rights pioneer. Parks will lie in repose Saturday at the St. Paul AME Church in Montgomery, Ala., and a memorial service will be held at the church Sunday morning.
Following her viewing in the Capitol, a memorial service was planned for Monday at St. Paul AME Church in Washington.
From Monday night until Wednesday morning, Parks will lie in repose at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. Her funeral will be Wednesday at Greater Grace Temple Church in Detroit.
Officials in Detroit and Montgomery, Ala., are keeping the first seats of their buses empty, in tribute to Parks' legacy, until her funeral next week. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick put a black ribbon Thursday on the first passenger seat of one of about 200 buses where seats will be reserved.
"We cannot do enough to pay tribute to someone who has so positively impacted the lives of millions across the world," Kilpatrick said.
In some buses in Montgomery, the first seat was being covered with black fabric and a photograph of Parks was being displayed, according to the Montgomery Area Transit System.
Officials elsewhere are offering similar tributes.
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority honored Parks by putting signs above seats in the front of 12 downtown buses that read: "This seat is reserved for no one. RTA honors the woman who took a stand by sitting down. Rosa Parks 1913-2005."