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After offering tributes Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, left, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, lend a hand to Johnnie Carr, a childhood friend of Parks.Outpouring of love sends civil rights pioneer home
National speakers pay tribute, push mourners to carry on civil rights icon's lifelong fight for equality.
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Rosa Parks' service at the Greater Grace Temple in Detroit moves mourner Jean Murriel. Parks died Oct. 24 at age 92 and became the first woman and second African-American to lie in honor at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C.
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DETROIT -- The long, historic and unprecedented goodbye is over for a giant of the 20th century.
Capping a mammoth celebration the likes of which neither Detroit nor the nation has seen in decades, a horse-drawn hearse carried the body of Rosa Parks on the start of a nine-mile journey Wednesday to a mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery, where she was interred.
About 1,000 mourners, some hoisting "Thank You, Mrs. Parks" signs, watched as the flag-draped casket emerged from Greater Grace Temple at 6:30 p.m. following a funeral that lasted more than seven hours.
Overhead, helicopters circled as a cortege of stretch limousines followed the old-fashioned glassed-in hearse. Its driver's face was streaked with tears as she guided her team of white horses while spectators fell into step behind the procession and walked to the beat of African drummers escorting Parks' body.
The funeral was the climax of an unprecedented outpouring of love and gratitude for a gentle freedom fighter who became one of the most recognizable icons in her adopted home, Detroit.
"A lot of people have never seen anything like this, but it's the proper way to pay tribute to a fallen hero," said Pete Williams, 48, an insurance agent from Romulus.
Not since an overflow crowd of 20,000 waited outside Henry Ford's 1947 funeral has the city turned out in such numbers to thank and mourn a revered citizen. The crowds for Parks appeared to rival those reported in 1968 in Atlanta, when thousands lamented the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
After a ceremonial procession, the casket was transferred to a modern hearse to complete the trip to Woodlawn.
The service at a small chapel was the end of a public remembrance that took Parks' body to three cities over five days, attracted more than 100,000 citizens and virtually emptied the halls of government.
It took two planes to carry members of Congress to Greater Grace Temple, where they joined more than 5,000 mourners for a rousing, proud and exhausting all-day service that featured about 40 speakers.
"Rosa Parks ignited the most significant social movement in modern American history," said former President Bill Clinton. "She finished the work that spawned the Civil War."
'Service fit for a queen'
Since Saturday, tens of thousands of mourners have waited for hours to view her body as it traveled from Montgomery, Ala., where Parks' stand launched a 381-day boycott of city buses; to Washington, D.C., where the Supreme Court struck down segregation; and to Detroit, where Parks moved in 1957 in part to escape harassment.
Eusebia Aquino-Hughes stayed for the entire funeral. The Detroit nurse, 50, had arrived at the church at 5 a.m. to be sure of obtaining a seat.
"It was a service fit for a queen," said Aquino-Hughes, who as a 10th-grader in 1972 interviewed Parks at home for a book report. "I didn't mind the length -- I wouldn't have forgiven myself if I hadn't come. It was magnificent."
More honors may soon come for Parks, who died Oct. 24 at age 92 and already has become the first woman and second African-American to lie in honor at the Capitol Rotunda.
U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said a statue may soon be built in Washington, D.C., to honor Parks. A movement is afoot to build a national monument for her in Detroit.
The best tribute, several speakers said, would be to continue Parks' unfinished struggle for racial equity.
"The greatest tribute we could pay to this improbable warrior is to continue battling," said Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
"By your actions, you have given us your final marching orders," Granholm concluded.
"We are enlisted in this war. On behalf of the state of Michigan, ma'am, we are reporting for duty."
Struggle for equality renewed
The funeral started shortly after 11 a.m. and ended near 6:30 p.m.
Punctuated by multiple standing ovations, it freely mixed remembrances, Scripture, song and politics. Most attendees remained in the pews, gripped by Parks' legend, for several hours. Many hundreds waited outside to claim the seats of those who departed early.
Parks' longtime friend Elaine Steele and O'Neil Swanson, the funeral director, closed and locked the casket about 11:50 a.m., after Parks' body was viewed by numerous relatives, friends and dignitaries such as Clinton, his wife, U.S. Sen. Hilary Clinton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Aretha Franklin.
Franklin performed two soul-stirring selections: "The Impossible Dream" and "I'll Fly Away" to a standing ovation. The long service -- which some attendees called "an old-fashioned homegoing" -- didn't seem to diminish the enthusiasm of the hundreds who gathered outside for the planned procession. Nor did it diminish the hope among many to renew Parks' struggle toward racial equity.
Late in the afternoon, the crowd in was encouraged to stand for yet another ovation by the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
"Some lives are worthy of taking a while to say goodbye to," Jackson said. "... Show your love for courage, character, representing us so well, making us feel so much better, and setting us free."
U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick, D-Detroit, encouraged the crowd to honor Parks by improving their communities and continuing the civil rights fight.
"Rosa Parks was about progress, not memory," Kerry said. "Yes, she sat down so we could stand up, but not so we could stand still."
Several speakers, including Granholm, denounced a referendum effort to roll back affirmative action on university campuses."Jim Crow had sons," said the Rev. Al Sharpton.
"Now we battle James Crow Jr. Esq. He's a little more educated, a little more polished. But the results are the same. He doesn't put you on the back of the bus. He just puts initiatives on the ballot to ask if you want to end diversity in school."
As most funeralgoers dispersed, others lingered at Greater Grace Temple, talking and taking photographs. Among them were Yevette Soule and her mother, Shirley. The women from Grand Rapids had watched the proceedings most of the day on television. By 4 p.m. they felt compelled to jump in the car and set out for Detroit to be part of the experience.
Hundreds of people with the same impulse gathered outside Woodlawn Cemetery, spontaneously chanting and singing together.
Tajjon Robinson, 9, rode on his father's shoulders for a better view. The Rev. Frank Robinson, 44, wanted his son to share in a historic moment.
"This is such a blessing to see folks come together without trampling all over each other," Robinson said. "You see no violence, you see nothing but love. I hope it continues."
Before an honor Army guard carried Parks' casket into a mausoleum, celebrants released 152 doves: One batch of 92 to celebrate Parks' age at death; another of 50 for the years since she made her historic stand.
"My heart has been fluttering all day," said Vincent Johnson, 44, of Oak Park. "I'm so speechless. We will never see anything like this again in our lifetime."
You can reach Joel Kurth at (313) 222-2610 or jkurth@detnews.com.; More excerpts, 11A
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