Capitol May Host Vigil for Rosa Parks
If Congress Approves, She Would Be First Woman Honored in Rotunda
Rosa Parks, the African American seamstress who refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., 50 years ago and lent a spark to the beginnings of the modern civil rights movement, is expected to make history again as the first woman ever to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.
The Senate approved a resolution last night to allow the honor, and the House is to consider it today. U.S. Capitol Police and the staff in the office of the Architect of the Capitol already had begun working on logistics for the event, which the resolution said would take place Sunday and Monday.
It would be the first time a woman has been so honored and one of the few occasions for a citizen who did not hold an elected office. Americans have quietly shuffled past the coffins of presidents Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, among others. They have mourned the unknown soldiers of both World Wars, Korea and Vietnam. In 1998, a Rotunda vigil was held for U.S. Capitol Police Officer Jacob Chestnut and Detective Mike Gibson, who were shot to death in an ambush inside the Capitol. Chestnut was the first African American to be honored; Parks would be the second.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/27/AR2005102702272.html
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