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At the U.N., a Strong Warning to Syria; Remembering Rosa Parks

Aired October 31, 2005 - 13:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Right now in the news, buses, trolleys and subways aren't running in Philadelphia today after thousands of workers went on strike last night. Commuter rails are still running because a different union is involved. Philadelphia's last transit strike in 1998 lasted 40 days.
And at the U.N., a strong warning to Syria, cooperate or else.

CNN's senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth joins me now with the latest on efforts to get to the bottom of the Rafik Hariri assassination -- Richard.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the U.N. Security Council pushed by the U.S., France and Britain, getting very tough now with the government of Syria. A U.N. investigation report found that it's possible Syrian and Lebanese high-level officials had something to do with the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, after hours of last-minute negotiations, 15-0, unanimous vote, demanding that Syria cooperate or face further action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECY. OF STATE: Syria has offered no truthful explanations to these serious allegations. Instead, it has chosen until now to dismiss the commission report as politically motivated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: The assassination of Rafik Hariri sent shock waves throughout the Middle East. He was killed in a bombing attack last Valentine's Day, 20 other people were killed. All eyes are on Syria because the report hinted that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's brother and brother-in-law may have been involved in the plotting for this killing. The U.S. hopes a strong signal has been sent by this message.

Kyra, there was an interesting rare public argument inside the council between Syria's foreign minister and the British foreign secretary. Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. secretary of state, called, what Syria said, an unbelievable tirade, because he was linking the 9/11 attack warnings and Britain and Spain bombings to possibly, how can you accuse Syria when you didn't rush to judgment after those cases?

Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Richard Roth, live from the U.N. Thanks, Richard. Now today's top story, the president's latest pick to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the nation's highest court. This time, he's chosen circuit court Judge Samuel Alito, someone he views as accomplished and someone with a track record. And unlike his previous nominee, someone with a track record. That record already under scrutiny by those who will voting on the nomination.

CNN's senior correspondent Allan Chernoff joins us from the courthouse in Newark, New jersey where Judge Alito has chambers -- Allan.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, Judge Alito does have his chambers on the third floor of the building right behind me, and that even though the Third Circuit is actually based in Philadelphia, but Judge Alito lives in New Jersey. This is convenient for him, and they hear cases here twice a year, so he keeps his chambers over here. Most of the judges do have their chambers in Philadelphia.

Now, he's written more than 350 opinions, so plenty for people to review in terms of deciding whether this is the sort of judge that the Congress would like to see on the Supreme Court.

But in terms of people who work with him, who know him from his neighborhood, almost everyone saying, the guy is very down to earth, very humble, a very polite person, very, very smart, everyone says that, and of course, from the mom, his mom, his 90-year-old mom, she said, she's not surprised at all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSE ALITO, JUDGE ALITO'S MOTHER: When he was born he was winning things at a very early age, but I really promoted them. I know that children can do a great deal more than anybody expects.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: By the way, Judge Alito is known for calling his mom every day. He loves Italian food, tomatoes, and he loves to garden, and also play baseball in the backyard of his home in West Caldwell, New Jersey. Kyra, he's also contributed quite a bit to the legal profession. He teaches as an adjunct professor at Seton Hall Law School, and he has even coached the high school mock trial team in West Caldwell. So certainly giving back quite a bit to the legal community and even to the kids in his community.

PHILLIPS: Allan, we all talk with our mothers, we all check in on a regular basis for advice, right. That's what we've done since we were little kids. Doesn't surprise me.

CHERNOFF: Kyra, we're all supposed to do that. I do it, I'm sure you do, and Judge Alito does as well.

PHILLIPS: Absolutely. Are you kidding me, I don't want the guilt trip. There you go. Allan Chernoff, all right, thank you so much.

Well, Judge Samuel Alito differs from Harriet Miers in more than just a few ways. One of the big differences their legal education.

Daryn Kagan has the facts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Judge Samuel Alito graduated from Princeton in 1972. And three years later, he received his law degree from Yale. Harriet Miers got both her bachelor's and law degrees from Southern Methodist University.

Now, it's certainly not a requirement, but coming from the Ivy League could help Judge Alito fit in on the high court. If Alito is confirmed, eight out of the nine Supreme Court justices would have Ivy League law degrees, five of them from Harvard. Justice John Paul Stevens is the only exception. He got his law degree from Northwestern University.

Sandra Day O'Connor, by the way, was not an Ivy Leaguer either. She received her law degree from Stanford.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Our other top story, in addition with the nomination of Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court, of course, we've been talking about Rosa Parks, and an incredible memorial service that's taking place at the AME Church there in Washington. We're going to be talking with Reverend Joseph Lowery once again, a very good friend and confidant of Rosa Parks. As we follow the memorial service, we'll talk more with the reverend right after a quick break.

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PHILLIPS: Live pictures from Washington again this hour. Hundreds and hundreds of people have gathered to remember the woman that many view as the mother of the civil rights movement. Earlier today thousands more people paid tribute to Rosa Parks, filing past her casket lying in honor at the Capitol Rotunda. Here with me again, the Reverend Joseph Lowery, founder and past president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and personal friend of Rosa Parks.

I think one of my favorite stories is that $25 check that Rosa Parks gave your daughter, and she never wanted to cash it, because it was Rosa Parks that wrote her the check.

REV. JOSEPH LOWERY, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: She told Mrs. Parks she'd never cash it. Mrs. Parks chastised her, because you're keeping me from balancing my checkbook, young lady. I thought that was -- it showed the unassuming, unpretentious nature of Rosa Parks. It didn't occur to her that this document now was sacred as far as my daughter was concerned.

PHILLIPS: Well, and I think that you talk a lot about that, that God chose her -- because a lot of people say, well, there were a number of people that tried to fight for the rights of African- Americans. Why Rosa Parks? Why all of a sudden was it Rosa Parks that created this movement, and you said it's because God chose her. She was the right one, because she was humble, and she wasn't seeking anything else for it, but just a seat.

LOWERY: I believe God chose her, because nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come, and I think the idea to break the great barrier, and evil of racial segregation and public transportation had come. I believe God chose her. It wasn't the first time it had happened. Another young woman, younger than Rosa, had refused to give up her seat, but it didn't break out into a massive demonstration of support and withdrawal from what was considered an evil system.

But Rosa's rebellion, her refusal to move back, her decision to be steadfast and immovable in the faith set a community on fire. Fifty-thousand people knew Rosa Parks as an unassuming modest woman, but who discovered that she had a fire in her belly that wasn't obvious from the outside, and she exercised individual responsibility, but she was not isolated from the community. She was part of a movement.

And I think she sends a lesson to all of us that we ought to do two things. We ought to exercise our own individual responsibility to challenge that which is wrong, and secondly, we ought to participate in a movement, because unity gives us strength. She did both, and the world had to take notice.

PHILLIPS: Well, and she had, as we've talked about many a times, this quiet strength and it created this movement. What do you make, though, of the advocates that feel they have to scream, and yell, and be on television all the time and complain about everything, and very different from what Rosa Parks stood for.

LOWERY: Well, it's called diversity, and I'm not going to knock anybody or any group. The problem is so tremendous and horrendous that it's going to take all kinds, and all methods, and all techniques and all strategies, so as long as it's nonviolent, as long as it's done in love and the spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood, I'm not going to knock it, because we don't know what's going to work at a particular time and a particular place.

PHILLIPS: And times change, too.

LOWERY: And times change.

PHILLIPS: Different challenges, different people leading the country.

LOWERY: That's correct, and we have to continue to try everything. As long as it's in the context of nonviolence and love, that's where we rest, and we're not going to condone violence. We're not going to -- but we are going to condone militancy, and if it takes shouting and screaming, I'm willing to shout and scream. If it takes the quiet strength of Rosa Parks, God bless them too.

PHILLIPS: Speaking of quiet strength, her husband, Raymond, boy, he had a tough time with a lot of the attention and everything that they went through. I mean, she lost her job as a seamstress, they had to move because of death threats. LOWERY: I think his first concern was her safety. I think we forget that the tenor of the times in the '50s in Alabama. It was a violent era, and all around that time bombs were being exploded at people's home, Martin's home, Ralph Abernathy's home and church. Little girls were killed in Sunday school in Birmingham. It was a violent era, and people were disappearing, and being brutalized and threatened.

And the husband Raymond was concerned about her safety, as any husband would be. Then their livelihood became an issue, because she couldn't get a job. And so they decided to accept John Conyers, Congressman Conyers, invitation to move to Detroit.

It's a sad commentary on the community and on the times that -- those times, because she should not have had to leave home. She was born 30 miles from Montgomery and Tuskegee; and if she wanted to remain, she should have been able to do so. That was her right as a citizen of the United States, and she shouldn't have been driven from her home, especially a strong quiet, modest angel like Rosa Parks.

PHILLIPS: And this angel, her body, was lying in honor in the Rotunda. I mean, the place where presidents, their bodies lying in state, isn't that just remarkable?

LOWERY: It is remarkable. It's miraculous. And I'm very appreciative of the act of Congress that made that possible and the cooperation of the administration.

I do hope, however, that I find it strange that the president could come from praising Rosa Parks to stuffing the Supreme Court with another right-wing ideologue. That...

PHILLIPS: You're having a hard time with that right now, aren't you?

LOWERY: I'm having a hard time, a little contradiction, and that's why I'm saying we must move from ceremony to sacrament. The rotunda is a beautiful ceremony, but it ended when they removed the body. Sacraments begin with the benediction. And ceremony, as I said last night, translates thoughts into words and symbolic acts. Sacraments translates symbolic acts and words into reality, into the policy and practice, and that's where we need to move in this country, from ceremony to sacrament. I'm saddened that they're talking about another Scalia on the Supreme Court out of one side of the mouth, while praising a champion of liberty and rights, women's rights, rights of privacy, workers' right, civil rights, human rights on the other.

PHILLIPS: You and I have talked about diversity on the Supreme Court, and we're actually going to talk about that in the next hour. We have two fantastic individuals that are going to join us. We're going to debate that and talk about why...

LOWERY: It's a good topic.

PHILLIPS: Can you imagine Rosa Parks on the U.S. Supreme Court? Wouldn't that have been amazing?

LOWERY: It would have been amazing.

PHILLIPS: Reverend Joseph Lowery, thanks so much for your time, as always. It's always such a pleasure.

LOWERY: Thank you very much for having me.

PHILLIPS: Thank you.

We're going to take a quick break. More LIVE FROM right after this.

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