30,000 Americans pay respects to Parks

MORE than 30,000 Americans streamed through the US Capitol Rotunda to pay tribute yesterday to Rosa Parks, filing by her casket in hushed awe of the woman whose defiant act on a city bus inspired the modern civil rights movement.

“I rejoice that my country recognises that this woman changed the course of American history, that this woman became a cure for the cancer of segregation,” said the Rev Vernon Shannon, 68, pastor of John Wesley African-Methodist- Episopal Zion in Washington, one of many who rose before dawn to see the casket. Elderly women carrying purses, young couples holding hands and small children in the arms of their parents reverently proceeded around the raised wooden casket.

Capitol Police spokeswoman Sergeant Jessica Gissubel said more than 30,000 had passed through the Rotunda since Sunday evening, when the viewing began.