Thursday, October 27, 2005

Rob Carr / Associated Press About 200 people march through downtown Tuskegee, Ala., during a memorial service in honor of Rosa Parks on Wednesday.

Parks will lie in state in capital

Washington, D.C., will honor civil rights icon in Lincoln Memorial; burial will be in Detroit.

By Joel Kurth / The Detroit News

Memorials • Saturday: Parks' body will lie in state at her church, St. Paul AME in Montgomery, Ala. • Sunday: 10:30 a.m. service at St. Paul AME; the casket then will be flown to Washington, D.C. • Sunday: Parks' body will lie in state at the Lincoln Memorial from 6 p.m. to midnight. • Monday: Memorial service at 1 p.m. at the Historical AME Church. Then the casket will travel back to Detroit. The body will lie in state at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History from 9 p.m. Monday to 5 a.m. Wednesday. • Wednesday: 11 a.m. funeral at Greater Grace Temple, Detroit. Error processing SSI file Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

DETROIT -- In a gesture of respect reminiscent of those reserved for titans of government, Rosa Parks' body will lie in state in the rotunda of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Sunday and then return to Detroit for another public viewing and funeral services.

Parks

The honor speaks to the influence of the quiet seamstress who sparked the desegregation movement by refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus in 1955.

"Congressman John Conyers and Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick appeal to (Congress)," said Anita Peek, a longtime Parks friend and a director of the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development in Detroit. She said that Conyers and Kilpatrick worked hard behind the scenes at the Capitol this week to get the request approved by the House and by President Bush.

Meanwhile, the House and Senate Wednesday voted to rename a federal building in Detroit in honor of Parks.

The structure at 333 Mount Elliot, which houses the Federal Homeland Security Office, will be dubbed the Rosa Parks Federal Building.

The funeral plans will allow the public a last chance to pay their respects to Parks, who died in her Detroit apartment Monday at age 92.

Many people from ordinary Americans to heads of state have expressed interest in the services.

"I'd be honored to be there -- I gave her the Medal of Freedom," former President Bill Clinton said.

Parks' body has remained at Swanson Funeral Home in Detroit, which is handling arrangements and was swamped with calls. For much of Wednesday, receptionist Diana Evans politely answered the phone and repeated the same phrase: "No arrangements yet, ma'am. Nothing concrete. Call back after 5 p.m."

By 1 p.m., she had repeated the words at least 50 times.

"It's an honor we have her, so I understand," Evans said. "People really love her and appreciate what she did."

Parks' body will be flown to Montgomery in time for public viewing Saturday.

Plans call for Parks to lie in state Saturday at her former church in Montgomery, St. Paul AME. Bishop Theodore Larry Kirkland will preside over services Sunday. Then her casket will travel to Washington and repose at the Lincoln Memorial from 6 p.m. to midnight. Monday, there will be a memorial service at 1 p.m. at the Historical AME Church.

The Rev. Joseph Rembert, pastor of the church, said the congregation had planned to put Parks' body on view for several hours after the service Sunday.

Those plans changed late Wednesday when Parks' representatives from Detroit called and said they needed to fly the body sooner, he said.

Parks' funeral is set for Detroit. Her body will lie in state from 9 p.m. Monday to 5 a.m. Wednesday at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. Funeral services are 11 a.m. Wednesday at Greater Grace Temple. Burial will be in a family plot in Woodlawn Cemetery.

The committee of friends and relatives still is finalizing such details as to who will deliver the eulogy and how Parks will be presented.

President Bush has ordered all federal flags lowered to half-staff the day of Parks' burial. Aides to the president said Wednesday they weren't certain if Bush would attend her funeral in Detroit.

The parade of memorials already has begun.

Some 200 residents of Tuskegee, Ala., on Wednesday marched through the streets in honor of Parks.

On Friday, Alabama dignitaries are expected to participate in a service at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in Montgomery.

Martin Luther King led the bus boycott, which began with Parks' arrest, from the pulpit of the nondescript brick church that seats 400.

"Remove the church, you remove the movement," Carr said. "The civil rights movement was born in a church and Christianity has always been the background of what we stood for. You couldn't have a memorial for her anyplace else."

Parks' church in Alabama, St. Paul AME, is bracing for an onslaught of visitors when her body will be on view. It has capacity to hold about 700 people.

"We don't know what to expect," Rembert said. "We're just opening the doors to whomever. Mrs. Parks would be offended if I was concerned about which dignitaries would attend. She believed everyone had worth."

Even though she moved to Detroit in 1957 following death threats, Parks was a "hometown girl" who returned to the church often until she became too ill in recent years, Rembert said.

She often brought students and told them, "don't be bitter, be better," said Rembert, who is sometimes known as "the Rappin' Rev." for his rhymes. "Mrs. Parks was a church person," he said. "We could have services for her in a coliseum, but that wouldn't be her."

Detroit News Staff Writer Oralander Brand-Williams contributed to this report. You can reach Joel Kurth at (313) 222-2610 or jkurth@detnews.com.