Thousands Gather at
the Capitol
to Remember a Hero
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY,
NYTimes on the Web, October 31, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 - Like
thousands of others, the Waters family of Lawrenceville, N.J., three
generations, arrived at the Capitol many hours early on Sunday, determined to
witness what so many called an extraordinary moment in American history.
Shortly before 8 p.m., the coffin bearing Rosa Parks, the accidental matriarch
of the civil rights movement who died last Monday at 92, arrived at the Capitol
and was carried by a military guard to lie in the Rotunda.
A seamstress by trade, Mrs. Parks became the first woman ever accorded such a
tribute and just the 31st person over all since 1852, a list that includes
Abraham Lincoln and nine other presidents.
At a ceremony attended by dozens of dignitaries, President Bush and his wife,
Laura, laid one of three wreaths at the coffin. Leaders of the House and
the Senate laid the others.
Mr. Bush did not speak, but greeted a few people and shook hands before leaving.
Soon after his departure, the room was opened to the public, and a procession of
admiring, curious and deeply thankful people slowly walked past. The
Capitol police planned to keep doors open until midnight, possibly later if
people remained in line, then reopen them at 7 a.m. Monday for three hours.
The coffin will then be driven to the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church in Washington
for a 1 p.m. service.
It will then be flown to Detroit, Mrs. Parks's hometown, where she is to lie in
repose at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History until
Wednesday, when she will be buried.
While waiting to enter the Capitol, Swanee Waters, 68, talked about how
important it was to have made the journey with her daughter, Beth Golden, 41,
and especially her granddaughter Swanee Golden, who is 8 and learned about Mrs.
Parks after reading a book just weeks ago.
"I just thought this was a way to make her aware of what happened in the
movement," said Ms. Waters, who was a high school senior in 1955, when Mrs.
Parks refused to give up her seat for a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Ala.,
a single act of defiance that is generally recognized as the start of the
American civil rights movement.
Ms. Waters and her daughter thought it was imperative that Swanee share in the
tribute.
"This is an opportunity she will never have again," Ms. Waters said, "and I
thought it would be great for all three of us to come by."
Ms. Golden said: "My daughter doesn't have the memories that I and my
mother have. So now when people talk about Rosa Parks and civil rights, my
daughter can say she was in Washington, D.C., when she lay in honor.
She'll have that moment."
It was a sentiment echoed by many who waited patiently throughout the day under
a sparkling sky. The earliest arrived at 10 a.m., and many passed the
hours in line reading newspapers, chatting with strangers or quietly singing
songs like "We Shall Overcome," the anthem of the civil rights movement.
"This is a moment in time," said Judy Rashid of Greensboro, N.C., the dean of
students at North Carolina A&T. "I'm standing in this line in her memory
and for my unborn grandchildren, hoping they can be strong and courageous like
Rosa was."
For refusing to move to the back of the bus and make way for whites, as the laws
of segregation required, Mrs. Parks was arrested, convicted and fined $10, plus
$4 in court costs.
But the episode set off a boycott of the Montgomery bus company that lasted 381
days and led to a Supreme Court decision that forced the bus company to
desegregate, casting a mighty blow against Jim Crow laws that provided separate
facilities for blacks and whites.
Over the next five decades, Mrs. Parks became an enduring symbol of the struggle
for equality.
She moved with her husband to Hampton, Va., in 1957 and later that year to
Detroit, where she resumed work as a seamstress before Representative John
Conyers hired her in 1965 as a secretary and receptionist. She worked for
him until she retired in 1988.
The lines of people at the Capitol were filled with proud and grateful
African-Americans and with many whites, who said the societal changes she
spurred benefited all Americans.
"Here was a woman who through a very unassuming personal action triggered a
whole movement," said Brian Higgins of Takoma Park, Md. "I want to pay
homage to that. As a white person, I find it particularly extraordinary
that her act was such a universal message. It did as much for me as any
minority in our society."
The coffin came to Washington after a memorial service earlier in the day at St.
Paul A.M.E. Church in Montgomery, where Mrs. Parks was once a member.
Hundreds attended, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the first
black woman to hold that office, who was born in Birmingham one year before Mrs.
Parks boarded the fateful bus.
"I can honestly say," Ms. Rice said in Montgomery, "that without Mrs. Parks, I
probably would not be standing here today as secretary of state."
Lakiesha R. Carr contributed reporting for this article.
|
