Thousands Honor Courage of Rosa Parks

With reverence and a deep sense of indebtedness, the nation's capital last night began its simple but dignified farewell for Rosa Parks, the humble woman whose courageous act 50 years ago led to the breakdown of racial segregation in the United States. A massive crowd of people of all ages, colors and political beliefs pressed together, then lined up patiently at the U.S. Capitol to view her coffin and talk about the enormous changes she brought the nation -- and them.

Parks, who died Oct. 24 at age 92, made history even in death. She became the first woman, and only the 30th American, to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda. The nation's farewell to Parks, which began yesterday with a vigil and a memorial service in Montgomery, Ala., will continue today with a 1 p.m. service at Metropolitan AME Church.

A funeral and burial will be held Wednesday in Detroit, and President Bush has ordered that flags at the White House and other federal installations be flown at half-staff that day.

What struck many about last night's event was how much it seemed to reflect the guiding principles of Parks's long life: dignity and understatement. No elected officials, not even Bush, spoke at a brief service at the Rotunda, and the coffin itself -- a plain, highly polished, cherry-wood coffin with eight wooden handles -- sat in the center of the Rotunda, with no carving, flag or flowers upon it.

Shortly before 7:30 p.m., the motorcade -- a hearse, three Metro buses draped in black for the family and friends, motorcycles and squad cars -- arrived at the Capitol, receiving a huge reaction of applause from the waiting crowd.

Bush and first lady Laura Bush arrived in a separate motorcade. The stately quality of the event was striking for a woman who talked of growing up on her grandfather's Alabama farm, worked as a seamstress and married a barber, and never seemed to seek a spotlight for herself.

As the crowd waited quietly in ever-lengthening lines for the viewing, bundled up against the night chill, some held signs that read, "Thank You, Rosa Parks." Others spoke of "Miss Rosa" and her impact on their lives as if they had known the former Montgomery resident who decided one day in 1955 that she would rather go to jail than give up her bus seat to a white passenger. That act led to a Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public transportation was unconstitutional, and the civil rights movement began to flower.

"Miss Rosa means a great deal to me," said Deric Colander, 41, of Chester, Va., who is retired military and arrived at the Capitol six hours before the public viewing of Parks's coffin was to begin. "Miss Rosa set the stage for a whole lot of opportunities I've had. She set the tone for the civil rights movement."

By the time the motorcade filled with dignitaries arrived from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, the crowd waiting in the darkness outside the Capitol had grown to enormous proportions. It stretched from Second Street and Constitution Avenue to Fourth and Constitution, filling two giant fields.

Many had waited for five hours and still anticipated hours of waiting before they got to the Rotunda. At 10:30 p.m., the line snaked from one side of the Mall to the other, doubled up and then went almost to the doors of Union Station. Metro announced that it would stay open an extra hour, until 1 a.m., to accommodate the crowds. Early this morning, the wait was still estimated at five hours.

Officials said they would keep the Capitol open as long as it took. "It's almost as much as Reagan," said U.S. Park Police spokesman Bill Line, referring to the massive crowds at the public viewing of the former president last year.

As the Morgan State University choir, in gold-trimmed royal blue robes, sang a muted version of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," members of the D.C. National Guard, who had carried the coffin from the hearse and up the steps, brought it into the Rotunda. The Bushes, along with leaders of the House and Senate, had stood silently for 15 minutes before the coffin as brought inside, more than an hour late.