美洲—美国举行长达一天的葬礼以纪念民权女英雄罗莎·帕克斯（在线收听）

US Civil Rights Heroine Rosa Parks Honored with Day-Long Funeral

美国举行长达一天的葬礼以纪念民权女英雄罗莎·帕克斯

Civil rights heroine Rosa Parks, who died last week at age 92, was laid to rest in Detroit on Wednesday. Thousands of people attended a day-long funeral for the the woman who inspired the U.S. civil rights movement 50 years ago by refusing to give up her seat on a city bus.

(MUSIC)

Rousing gospel music filled Detroit's Greater Grace Temple Church as what was supposed to have been a three-hour service turned into a daylong event. More than 4,000 people packed the church to honor the African-American woman who in 1955 refused to give up her bus seat for a white man, as the law in Montgomery, Alabama, required at the time.

Former President Bill Clinton, who honored Mrs. Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996, recalled riding a segregated bus to school in Arkansas when he was a child.

Bill Clinton: The world knows of Rosa Parks because of a single simple act of dignity and courage that struck a lethal blow to the foundations of legal bigotry.

Mr. Clinton said Mrs. Parks ignited the most significant social movement in American history with her refusal, which triggered a 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system led by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., who was not well-known at the time.

Bill Clinton: Let us never forget that in that simple act and a lifetime of race and dignity, she showed us every single day what it means to be free. She made us see and agree that everyone should be free.

U.S. Senator Barack Obama, of Illinois, the only African-American in the U.S. Senate, said Mrs. Parks made history, even though she never held public office and was not a wealthy woman.

Barack Obama: It is this small, quiet woman, whose name will be remembered long after the names of senators and presidents have been forgotten. It's her name that will be recalled as having helped lay the foundation for a nation to live up to its creed.

Mrs. Parks made history again after her death as she became the first woman and only the second African-American to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington. She was to be entombed in a mausoleum at the prestigious Woodlawn Cemetary, where some of Detroit's leading citizens have been laid to rest.

This is Mike Cooper for VOA news, Atlanta.

注释：

rousing [5rauziN] adj. 鼓舞人的

lethal [5li:WEl] adj. 致命的

bigotry [5bi^Etri] n. 固执，顽固

ignite [i^5nait] v. 点燃

Reverend [5revErEnd] adj. （对牧师的尊称，前面与the连用）尊敬的

creed [kri:d] n. 信条

entomb [in5tu:m] vt. 埋葬