The tiny, unassuming woman, who in her quiet way made history 50 years ago, probably wouldn’t have expected such a grand national tribute. But on Monday they streamed into a majestic church–celebrities, political dignitaries and civil rights legends–to honor the former seamstress, Rosa Parks.
The first pew included Sen. Edward Kennedy, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, activist Dorothy Height, television personality Oprah Winfrey and actress Cicely Tyson, who portrayed Parks’ mother in the film “The Rosa Parks Story.”
“May we all aspire to be strong, humble voices for justice,” said Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat for whom Parks worked after moving to Detroit from Montgomery, Ala., in 1957. “Even in death, she has taught us that if everybody is equal we can all win.”
Conyers recalled how during Nelson Mandela’s visit to Detroit years ago, Mandela led the crowd in a chant of Rosa Parks’ name.
“It made us realize,” said Conyers, “this was an international phenomenon we are celebrating. Rosa Parks is worldwide.”
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By refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man, Parks sparked the Montgomery bus boycott and helped transform Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. into a civil rights legend.
On Sunday, she became the first woman to lie in honor at the Capitol rotunda. On Monday afternoon, Metropolitan AME Church–a 124-year-old church where the funeral for abolitionist Frederick Douglass was held–became the site of a stirring, gospel-filled tribute.
Hundreds more filled the sidewalk outside to listen through speakers.
Between rousing renditions of spirituals and moving passages of scripture, mourners remembered the “mother of the civil rights movement.”
Winfrey, who grew up in the South, said she remembered her father telling her of Parks’ defiance. She said her childhood memory of Parks was that of a woman larger than life, who “must have been 100 feet tall” with a “shield to hold back the white folks.”
“But in actuality, here was this petite, almost delicate lady who was the personification of grace,” she said.
Winfrey offered a personal thank-you to Parks.
“In that moment when you refused to stand, you reclaimed your humanity and you gave us all back a piece of our own,” she said. “Thank you, sister Rosa.”
“I would not be standing here today, or standing where I stand today if she not chosen to say, `We shall not be moved. We shall not be moved,”‘ Winfrey said.
Parks’ casket was flown to Detroit later Monday and displayed at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. Her funeral is Wednesday at Greater Grace Temple Church.