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Article: PARKS RECEIVES CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.(FRONT)
- Article from:
- The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)
- Article date:
- June 16, 1999
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 The Virginian Pilot-Ledger Star. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Dialog Corporation by Gale Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: FROM WIRE REPORTS
WASHINGTON -- Rosa Parks, the Alabama seamstress whose 1955 refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white man sparked the peaceful demonstrations of the civil rights movement, accepted Congress' highest honor on Tuesday.
In a wan voice that was the antithesis of the strength President Clinton, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and others praised her for, Mrs. Parks, 86 and frail, said, ``This will be encouragement for all of us to continue until all people have equal rights.''
An audience of perhaps 1,000 strained to hear her, moments after the soprano Jessye Norman filled the Capitol Rotunda to its 180-foot ...