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Thousands Expected to Honor Parks in Detroit
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
DETROIT — Thousands of people prepared to honor Rosa Parks (search) at her funeral, after at least 60,000 paid tribute to the civil rights pioneer in her native state of Alabama, the nation's capital and her adopted city of Detroit.
The funeral service was to begin 11 a.m. Wednesday at Greater Grace Temple after her casket was moved from the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History (search), where viewing was scheduled through the night. Tens of thousands had come to pay their respects in Detroit by Tuesday evening.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson (edit: a bumb) was among them, calling Parks "the mother of a new America." Jackson was to deliver Parks' eulogy.
Among those planning to attend the service were former President Clinton, his wife, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (search), Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (search), members of the Congressional Black Caucus (search), civil rights leaders and other dignitaries. Aretha Franklin (search) was to sing.
The church holds 4,000 people, even more than the Washington church where President Bush and wife Laura attended Parks' memorial service. Some 2,000 of Greater Grace Temple's seats were reserved for the public, and some lined up before dawn.
Parks was 92 when she died Oct. 24 in Detroit. Nearly 50 years earlier, she was a 42-year-old tailor's assistant at a department store in Montgomery, Ala., when she was arrested and fined $10 plus $4 in court costs for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery city bus. Her action on Dec. 1, 1955, triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (search)
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in December 1956 that segregated seats on city buses were unconstitutional, giving momentum to the battle against laws that separated the races in public accommodations and businesses throughout the South.
But Parks and her husband Raymond were exposed to harassment and death threats in Montgomery, where they also lost their jobs. They moved to Detroit with Rosa Parks' mother, Leona McCauley, in 1957.
Parks held a series of low-paying jobs before U.S. Rep. John Conyers (search) hired her in 1965 to work in his Detroit office. She remained there until 1987.
Parks was initially going to be buried a family plot in Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery, next to her husband and mother. But Swanson Funeral Home officials confirmed Tuesday that Parks would be entombed in a mausoleum at the cemetery and the bodies of her husband and mother also would be moved there.
Thousands Expected to Honor Parks in Detroit
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
DETROIT — Thousands of people prepared to honor Rosa Parks (search) at her funeral, after at least 60,000 paid tribute to the civil rights pioneer in her native state of Alabama, the nation's capital and her adopted city of Detroit.
The funeral service was to begin 11 a.m. Wednesday at Greater Grace Temple after her casket was moved from the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History (search), where viewing was scheduled through the night. Tens of thousands had come to pay their respects in Detroit by Tuesday evening.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson (edit: a bumb) was among them, calling Parks "the mother of a new America." Jackson was to deliver Parks' eulogy.
Among those planning to attend the service were former President Clinton, his wife, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (search), Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (search), members of the Congressional Black Caucus (search), civil rights leaders and other dignitaries. Aretha Franklin (search) was to sing.
The church holds 4,000 people, even more than the Washington church where President Bush and wife Laura attended Parks' memorial service. Some 2,000 of Greater Grace Temple's seats were reserved for the public, and some lined up before dawn.
Parks was 92 when she died Oct. 24 in Detroit. Nearly 50 years earlier, she was a 42-year-old tailor's assistant at a department store in Montgomery, Ala., when she was arrested and fined $10 plus $4 in court costs for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery city bus. Her action on Dec. 1, 1955, triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (search)
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in December 1956 that segregated seats on city buses were unconstitutional, giving momentum to the battle against laws that separated the races in public accommodations and businesses throughout the South.
But Parks and her husband Raymond were exposed to harassment and death threats in Montgomery, where they also lost their jobs. They moved to Detroit with Rosa Parks' mother, Leona McCauley, in 1957.
Parks held a series of low-paying jobs before U.S. Rep. John Conyers (search) hired her in 1965 to work in his Detroit office. She remained there until 1987.
Parks was initially going to be buried a family plot in Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery, next to her husband and mother. But Swanson Funeral Home officials confirmed Tuesday that Parks would be entombed in a mausoleum at the cemetery and the bodies of her husband and mother also would be moved there.
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