<p>Rosa Parks' journey neared its end in the city where she made a living after making history.</p><p>The revered but sometimes reluctant symbol of the dawning civil rights movement was 92 when she died Oct. 24 at her apartment in Detroit. Parks lay in honor in Montgomery, Ala., and in Washington before her body was returned Monday night to the city where she had lived since 1957.</p><p>Parks' mahogany casket was flown from Washington to Detroit, where it was carried into the rotunda of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History for round-the-clock viewing through early Wednesday.</p><p>By 8 p.m. Monday, hundreds of people had lined up outside the museum in a raw drizzle to wait for their moment to file past the casket. By the time the museum doors opened, thousands were standing quietly in a line stretching more than a quarter of a mile.</p><p>On Tuesday morning, the line again spilled out the museum's front doors and into the streets. Vendors sold souvenir T-shirts, and those waiting in line sipped coffee.</p><p>Tony Dotson, 43, a maintenance worker from Detroit, stood near the front of the line Monday night.</p><p>"I want to pay honor to mother Parks," he said. "I appreciate what a blessing she was, and I'm thankful she was right here in Detroit and we didn't have to travel far to see her."</p><p>Deborah Lee Horne, 56, of Detroit said she came out of "love, love, love. And in memory of the movement and what she stood for."</p><p>Horne said she was encouraged by the sight of so many children and teenagers waiting with her. "I think what she did needs to be highlighted for young people," she said. "If not, they have no idea."</p><p>Viewing was to continue until 5 a.m. Wednesday, with Parks' funeral to be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Greater Grace Temple Church. Former President Clinton and singer Aretha Franklin were scheduled to attend.</p><p>Parks was to be buried next to her husband and mother in Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery.</p><p>In a three-hour memorial service Monday at historic Metropolitan A.M.E. Church in Washington, Parks was honored by political, religious and civil rights leaders and others who spoke of the example she set with a simple act of defiance: refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery city bus on Dec. 1, 1955.</p><p>"I would not be standing here today, nor standing where I stand every day, had she not chosen to sit down," talk show host Oprah Winfrey said. "I know that."</p><p>Bishop Adam Jefferson Richardson of the African Methodist Episcopal Church called Parks a "woman of quiet strength" who was "noble without pretense, regal in her simplicity, courageous without being bombastic."</p><p>Her memorial brought together leaders of both parties, from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.</p><p>Earlier, tens of thousands of people filed silently past Parks' casket in the Capitol Rotunda in hushed reverence from Sunday night through midmorning Monday. Parks became the first woman to lie in honor in the Rotunda, sharing the tribute given to Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and other national leaders.</p><p>Capitol Police estimated the crowd at more than 30,000 but some participants said it was far bigger.</p><p>Among those paying respects was Judge Samuel Alito and his family, the day President Bush nominated him to the Supreme Court.</p><p>Bush, who presented a wreath Sunday night at a Capitol Hill ceremony, ordered the U.S. flag flown at half-staff over all public buildings Wednesday, the day of Parks' funeral in Detroit.</p><p>Parks was a 42-year-old tailor's assistant at a Montgomery department store when she was arrested and fined $10 plus $4 in court costs. That triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system led by a 26-year-old minister, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.</p><p>The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in December 1956 that segregated seats on city buses were unconstitutional, giving momentum to the battle against laws that separated the races in public accommodations and businesses throughout the South.</p><p>Parks' act exposed her and her husband Raymond to harassment and death threats, and they lost their jobs in Montgomery. They moved to Detroit with Rosa Parks' mother, Leona McCauley, in 1957.</p><p>Rosa Parks held a series of low-paying jobs before U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. hired her in 1965 to work in his Detroit office. She remained there until 1987.</p><p>Raymond Parks died in 1977. After retiring in 1988, Parks devoted herself to the Raymond and Rosa Parks Institute for Self-Development, a nonprofit organization to educate young blacks about the history and principles of the civil rights movement.</p><p>___</p><p>Associated Press writers Ken Thomas, Bree Fowler, Jeffrey McMurray and Juan-Carlos Rodriguez contributed to this report.</p>
