Final tribute to Rosa Parks

2005-11-02 18:01

Detroit - Hundreds of mourners sang gospel songs and told stories about Rosa Parks to as they waited in queue to attend the funeral of the civil rights activist on Wednesday.

Former US presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter as well as former South African first lady Winnie Madikizela-Mandela were to be among the 4 000 people to attend the service at the Greater Grace Temple, an enormous African Methodist Episcopal church, in Detroit.

Legendary soul singer Aretha Franklin was to sing at the funeral for Parks, who died on October 24 aged 92.

Tributes have been made around the world to Parks's influence on the black civil rights movement with her defiant gesture of refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in 1955.

The act made her a rights icon and an inspiration to a generation.

Black activists such as Louis Farrakhan, head of the Nation of Islam group, and Jessie Jackson were also to be at the funeral.

Tens of thousands of people, including President George W Bush and other top politicians, filed past Parks's coffin when it was put on display for public tributes at the US Capitol building in Washington this week.

Parks was to be buried in Detroit, which had been her home for several decades, after the service.

- AFP