A Feb. 2 article about plans for the funeral of Coretta Scott King incorrectly said that Rosa Parks was the first black American to lie in honor in the Rotunda of the Capitol. The body of Jacob J. Chesnut, a black Capitol Police officer who was slain along with a colleague in 1998, was the first.
No Plans For King To Lie At Capitol
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Thursday, February 2, 2006
The chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus said yesterday that the group has made no plans to submit legislation that would allow Coretta Scott King's body to lie in honor at the Capitol Rotunda, as it did for another civil rights figure, Rosa Louise Parks.
"We anticipated that that question would come up at some point," said the chairman, Rep. Melvin L. Watt (D-N.C.). "I don't think there will be any movement at this point."
But others in the caucus said that legislation might be introduced if King's family requested it.
Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) has offered to have her body lie in honor in the Georgia State Capitol.
Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) was said to be in discussions with the King family over whether she should lie in honor.
King, the wife of slain civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., died Tuesday of ovarian cancer and heart failure in Playa de Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico. Her body arrived at a small airport in Atlanta yesterday, and her four children -- Yolanda, Martin Luther III, Dexter and Bernice -- began to make funeral arrangements.
Parks, who died in October at age 92, is credited with starting the movement. Her refusal to give up a bus seat to a white man led to the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, which Martin Luther King was chosen to lead because of his persuasive oratory.
"Certainly Rosa Parks was a person who sat down and started this," Watts said, explaining why the caucus made Parks the first black American to lie in honor at the Rotunda.
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