Hundreds Gather for Rosa Parks Memorial Service

More than 500 people turned out Friday to honour Rosa Parks, the infamous civil rights activist most famous for the Montgomery bus boycott, at a special memorial service in Alabama.

|TOP|Parks, who died at the age of 92 at her home in Detroit, USA on Monday, sparked off a boycott and the civil rights movement after refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man on 1 December, 1955.

A thought-provoking enlargement of Park’s black-and-white police mug shot from the day of her arrest gazed down at the crowd, which included dozens of elected officials.

The memorial service was held at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, which was led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the boycott.

“Go back to wherever you came from and put it into action!” shouted 94-year-old Johnnie Carr, a schoolmate of Parks in the 1920s and president of the Montgomery Improvement Association founded during the boycott and headed by King, to the cheering, standing-room only crowd, reports The Guardian.

“I am thankful to God that I had an opportunity to know – not hear about – but know Rosa Parks,” she added.

Andrew Young, former mayor of Atlanta and a King lieutenant, congressman and United Nations ambassador, said he was always impressed by Park’s dignity and humility. He said Parks would describe the bus incident as if “it was an accident”, reports The Guardian.

Mr Young highlighted the significance of Parks’ modest protest, saying, “if she could not survive as humble and sweet as she was in a segregated society – nobody could survive”.

|QUOTE|Several memorial services have been planned to honour Parks, who will lie in repose Saturday at the St. Paul AME Church in Montgomery, before a special memorial service at the church on Sunday morning.

Parks will also be the first woman accorded the honour by Congress of having her body lie in honour in the Capitol Rotunda later on Sunday and also on Monday.

The Mayor of Montgomery, Bobby Bright, said at the Friday memorial service that he had heard of a call to grant Parks a pardon. He refused to grant her one, saying, “She doesn’t need a pardon...We should be begging for her to pardon us,” a comment met with rapturous applause.

Members of the audience, both blacks and whites, ended the service by holding hands and singing “We Shall Overcome”.

The legacy of Parks is sure to continue after her death, with Francis McGowin, 50 of Montgomery saying she felt Parks’ courage had touched all people, not just blacks, and she was pleased to see a diverse crowd at the memorial.

“The civil rights movement was born here in Alabama and it’s a huge part of our heritage,” said the white McGowin.

Shanna Jordan, 30, who is black, said: “It makes a stand as far as where we are now in Montgomery and the rest of the country.”