'She Made It Clear That One Person Could Make a Difference'

Two white people stood at the head of the line to see Rosa Parks. The first, Annie Smith, of Baltimore, didn't want to say anything; the second, Jerry Long, of Arlington, couldn't say enough.

Long, 60, was 10 years old, his father serving at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., when Parks had her rendezvous with history. Soon after, he was impressed by the determination of blacks walking to work, boycotting the bus company that had denied her a seat.

"She's always been a hero to me," Long said. "Rosa Parks was an example that we can all revere and remember. She made it clear that one person could make a difference."

* * *

Larry Jackson and Sherrell Womack had just gotten into the ever-growing line near First Street NW when they spotted a frail woman trying to cross the lawn.

Unsteady on her feet ever since a stroke nine years ago, Lorella Bledsoe, 65, had walked eight long blocks from the senior citizens' apartment building where she lives in Chinatown. Her cane helped some on the asphalt, she said, but it was slipping on the grass.

"We saw her and said, 'This lady needs help,' " said Jackson, 47.

When the cousins reached Bledsoe, they stood on either side of her, assuring her they would not let her fall. Others in line waved them ahead a bit. A police officer found them a metal folding chair, and Jackson opened it each time the line paused so Bledsoe could sit down and rest.

She was determined to make it to the Rotunda -- after all, she'd marched from Selma to Montgomery back in the day.

Jackson and Womack said they'd stay right by her side and bring her home afterward, too.

* * *

Linda Wellmon, a FedEx customer service agent, and her daughter Jannine Saunders, a sixth-grader at Amidon Elementary School, were all set for a night of takeout from the Grand China carryout near the intersection of South Capitol and M streets SW last night. With empty stomachs, the two had a promising night ahead: They ordered dumplings, shrimp fried rice, and egg fu yung.