Mourners in Montgomery say goodbye to Rosa Parks - 10/30/05
Mourners in Montgomery say goodbye to Rosa Parks - 10/30/05: "MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- The birthplace of the modern civil-rights movement has bid farewell to the woman whose steely conviction helped launch it.
Wrapping up a weeklong celebration and mourning of Rosa Parks, hundreds of civil-rights veterans and family members gathered for a 2 1/2-hour memorial service at her old church, St. Paul AME.
The church seats about 700, far fewer than the hundreds of well-wishers who gathered to pay tribute to Parks, whose refusal to relinquish her seat to a white man in 1955 launched a 381-day bus boycott that helped end legalized segregation.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who grew up 90 miles away in Birmingham, said Parks' defiance 'set a revolution that made America face up to its birth defects.'
'Without Rosa Parks, I would not be standing here today as secretary of state,' Rice said.
Tens of thousands of people viewed Parks as she lay in repose Saturday at the church. Sunday, her casket was closed, surrounded by teeming bouquets of yellow and red flowers.
The 2 1/2-hour service featured speeches and remembrances from the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton; Alabama Gov. Robert Riley; NAACP President Bruce Gordon; Martin Luther King III; radio personality and author Tavis Smiley and actress Cicely Tyson, who portrayed Parks in the movie, 'The Rosa Parks Story.'"
Wrapping up a weeklong celebration and mourning of Rosa Parks, hundreds of civil-rights veterans and family members gathered for a 2 1/2-hour memorial service at her old church, St. Paul AME.
The church seats about 700, far fewer than the hundreds of well-wishers who gathered to pay tribute to Parks, whose refusal to relinquish her seat to a white man in 1955 launched a 381-day bus boycott that helped end legalized segregation.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who grew up 90 miles away in Birmingham, said Parks' defiance 'set a revolution that made America face up to its birth defects.'
'Without Rosa Parks, I would not be standing here today as secretary of state,' Rice said.
Tens of thousands of people viewed Parks as she lay in repose Saturday at the church. Sunday, her casket was closed, surrounded by teeming bouquets of yellow and red flowers.
The 2 1/2-hour service featured speeches and remembrances from the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton; Alabama Gov. Robert Riley; NAACP President Bruce Gordon; Martin Luther King III; radio personality and author Tavis Smiley and actress Cicely Tyson, who portrayed Parks in the movie, 'The Rosa Parks Story.'"
posted by Blackgold at 10:19 PM
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