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Ala. church, civil rights allies remember Parks
Willie James Thomas, 89, walks past the Davis Theatre, which has a marquee honoring Rosa Parks, in Montgomery, Ala.
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MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- There are songs to practice, eulogies to write, dignitaries to accommodate and a multitude of logistics to juggle.
But first, the long grass needs to be cut outside St. Paul AME Church, where hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- are expected Saturday and Sunday to view the body of Rosa Parks lying in state.
The mother of the modern civil rights movement will be celebrated this weekend throughout the city where she made her historic stand.
So, Michael Harris grabbed a lawnmower and tackled the weeds Thursday, joining other church members -- and an entire city -- eager to put its best face forward when the world descends for the start of the long goodbye to Parks, who died Monday.
"Her death hurt me to the bone," Harris said. "She's a spirit who will live on for eternity."
Montgomery, a city that still alternately celebrates its Civil War and civil rights heritage, is awakening to the awesome responsibility of sending off a legend.
It's started slowly, with a modestly attended ceremony Thursday. Officials draped black cloth over the front-row seat of a bus similar to the one Parks refused to relinquish her seat upon in 1955, lighting a spark that eventually imploded Jim Crow.
The send-off will build through the weekend, until senators and civil rights icons jam the 700-seat St. Paul AME for services for Parks before her body is flown to Washington, D.C., to lie in repose.
"We revere and cherish this opportunity," said Essie Buskey, 65, a member of the same sorority as Parks, Alpha Kappa Alpha.
"We want to honor a pioneer who impacted the world. History is set. What's what is what. Montgomery is proud to embrace her ."
Today, Montgomery is a laid-back capital city of 200,000 where government workers bustle about the capital but men still sell yams from the back of pickup trucks. Fifty years ago it was the crucible for the movement that ended legalized segregation and changed the course of the 20th century.
"Its history is everywhere," said Paul McPartland, who stopped on his slow drive from Arkansas to Florida because he wanted to participate in the bus-draping ceremony Thursday that honored Parks.
"It seemed like there could have been a better turnout," McPartland said. "She deserved better."
Elsewhere in the city, however, the real remembrances begin today.
Buskey will be among 15-20 sorority members serving as ushers for services today at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, the brick church from whose pulpit its pastor, the Rev. Martin Luther King, led the bus boycott that followed Parks' arrest.
The service, which will include youth choirs singing protest songs such as "Oh Freedom!" is hosted by the Montgomery Improvement Association. The group was formed to organize the boycott.
It's a church situated within 30 feet of a monument to the Jefferson Davis, the president of the slave-owning Confederacy. Wednesday, a pickup truck parked next to it had a bumper sticker with a Confederate war flag that read "Don't Blame Me. I Voted for Jeff Davis."
"As much as things change, they stay the same," said Ellis Moore, 50, a state building manager. "But if it wasn't for sister Parks, I wouldn't be getting ready to retire from the state of Alabama next month."
Things are much more hectic at St. Paul AME. The cell phone of its pastor, the Rev. Joseph Rembert, rarely stopped ringing Wednesday. Among his worries: Media arrangements, logistics with NAACP members and Parks relatives, and how services should proceed.
"This is not a political rally," said Rembert, referring to officials expected to attend. "This is not a forum to air grievances. We're trying to honor one of our members."
A motorcade is scheduled to transport Parks' body from the airport Saturday to St. Paul AME, where she was a long-time member. Parks will lie in repose from 3 p.m. to midnight.
Louetta Craig helped clean the church.
"We feel so honored to have this lady's body in the church," said Craig, who was a student at Alabama State University during the bus boycott.
"We're so pleased that she was a member, and so pleased that she took the courageous step she did. ... I remember going to those boycott meetings. I didn't know at the time it was history making. As you get older, you reflect. You realize, 'Oh my, we made history.'"
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The Detroit News.
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