Error processing SSI file
A military honor guard carries the casket containing civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks into the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit where she will lie in repose until her funeral on Wednesday morning.Detroit's turn to say final farewell
Icon's memorial, burial 'is part of our history'
The casket sits inside the Wright museum Monday. Parks will lie in honor at the museum until 5 a.m. Wednesday. The funeral is at 11 a.m. at Greater Grace Temple.
Error processing SSI file
Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings and Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick await the arrival of Rosa Parks' casket Monday.
Comment on this story
DETROIT -- Rosa Parks is home, welcomed by hundreds of Metro Detroiters who braved a chilly rain and hours-long lines to share memories and pay homage to the mother of the civil rights movement.
By sunrise, an estimated crowd of more than 1,000 had filed past Parks' casket in the rotunda of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. Raymond Tate, spokesman for the museum, said the line of mourners paid their respects all night long.
"It's like an endless stream of folks," Tate said. "It's been an incredible sight. There have been young and old, black and white. There were a lot of children, many of them very young -- five, six years old. I've been surprised to see that."
The initial crowd that waited outside the museum for the arrival of Parks' body at about 9 p.m. Monday moved quickly through the museum, and the line had flown steadily throughout the evening, Tate said.
Angela Baker was among the first to view Parks' body on its white-draped bier at the museum. Like other mourners, she had waited five hours by the time the casket was placed on display around 10 p.m.
As fleeting as the experience was, 41-year-old Baker was ecstatic that she got to see the civil rights icon and pay her respects in a personal way.
"It was just awesome," said Baker, of Detroit. "She led an entire movement. This was historic."
Parks came home to her adopted city, and final resting spot, after a five-day, three-city tour. The journey mirrored her life: From Montgomery, Ala., where her refusal to relinquish her seat launched a 381-day boycott; to Washington, D.C., which struck down segregation; and finally Detroit, where she continued to push for civil rights for 48 years before her death Oct. 24.
Parks returned Monday evening from Washington, where her body lay in state at the Capitol Rotunda. As a motorcade of police cars approached the museum, Lynette Williams tried to remain strong.
"My baby's coming home for good. It's starting to sink in," said Williams of Grosse Pointe Farms, who worked with the civil rights hero at the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute.
"This is our last ride. I just love her. There go my baby. There go my baby. Lord Jesus, help me."
Rain didn't sag spirits
A nagging rain that fell for hours eased at 9:04 p.m. Monday, just long enough for Army Spc. William Sanderfer and eight others in the Michigan Military Funeral Honor Guard to grasp the rails of Parks' mahogany casket and march into the museum.
"My heart raced, my adrenaline rushed and my legs turned to Jell-O," said Sanderfer. "It was like I could feel her spirit inside me. It's an honor of a lifetime."
Throughout the evening, hundreds of visitors snaked outside the museum's entrance on Farnsworth. They brought lawn chairs and traded Parks stories to ease the wait.
"I'm going to say thank you for what she did so long ago," said Bridgette Thomas, 39, of Pontiac. "You can ride on the front now. Get right behind the driver in heaven."
Visitation will continue around the clock until 5 a.m. Wednesday. The memorials will culminate in Parks' funeral at the Greater Grace Temple in Detroit at 11 a.m. Wednesday.
Jeanette Bradley, a Detroit resident, brought her 8- and 12-year-old daughters to the museum. After viewing Parks' body and receiving a souvenir program with Parks' picture and biography on it, Bradley glowed as she talked about filing past the casket.
"I wanted (my daughters) to experience history," said 31-year-old Bradley, a casino worker. "They can say they saw a legend."
Under visitors' feet in a circle of brass plates are the names of other celebrated African-Americans who have died, including Coleman Young, Ella Fitzgerald and Harriet Tubman.
Rosa Parks' name will be added soon, museum staff said.
"Detroit became her home," said Tyrone Davenport, the museum's chief operating officer. "This is where she should be."
Many faced similar trials
Parks and her husband moved to Detroit about two years after she refused to give up her seat in 1955 to a white man on a racially segregated bus.
The move north, prompted in part because of the harassment she suffered, resulted in her living longer in Detroit than she did in Alabama. She worked for several years for U.S. Rep. John Conyers and established several charitable foundations.
Malika Odessa Davis was among the first in line in Detroit to say goodbye to Parks. The 59-year-old Detroiter was born in Mississippi and experienced racism while growing up in the South.
In Memphis, Tenn., her co-workers at a laundry chided her when, at 18, she mistakenly drank out of a whites-only water fountain. And she remembers being forced to eat lunch outside in the rain because only white workers were allowed to eat in the cafeteria.
She met Parks several times in Detroit and came to be part of the city's official goodbye.
"Her stand helped change the whole South," said Davis, a poet. "It gave Dr. King his platform and the other leaders."
Robert Jones grew up in Indiana, but spent six summers in Mississippi as a child. He remembered the first time his father yanked him by the collar when he took a drink from the wrong fountain.
"I saw the signs that said 'white,' so I thought the water was white," said Jones, 47, of Ypsilanti. "I didn't want to drink any colored water. It's something you could never comprehend. You couldn't look at people a certain way. You couldn't say certain things. It was unreal."
Parks is the only woman and one of only two African-Americans to have had the honor of lying in the Capitol Rotunda.
One by one, the famous climbed the pulpit during an afternoon service in Washington at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Thanks from Oprah
Oprah Winfrey told the crowd she would not "be standing here today nor standing where I stand every day if Parks had not chosen to sit down.So I am here to say a final thank you sister Rosa."
Conyers, who pushed to have Parks' body in the Capitol Rotunda, said the importance of Parks' actions have reached across the globe.
"When Nelson Mandela after 27 years in prison came to Detroit and we were there to welcome him, what did Nelson Mandela do when he found out that Rosa Parks was in the stands?" Conyers said.
"He led a chant, 'Rosa Parks, Rosa Parks, Rosa Parks.' That made us realize that this is an international phenomenon."
A memorial service also was held Sunday at St. Paul AME Church in Montgomery.
Taking part in history
Bernard Wilson is in one of the choirs that will perform throughout the viewing in Detroit. "The city is really pulling together on a great note," said Wilson, who prepares exhibits at the museum. "Her burial, her memorial service ... they feel they need to be a part of it. It is part of our history."
Alison Bethel of The News' Washington bureau contributed to this report. You can reach Christine MacDonald at (313) 222-2269 or cmacdonald@detnews.com.
People wait outside the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History on Monday to view the body.
Copyright © 2005
The Detroit News.
Use of this site indicates your agreement to the Terms of Service (updated 12/19/2002).