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Tavis: I'm pleased to welcome former Detroit Mayor, Dennis Archer to the program tonight. Earlier today he attended the final memorial service for Mrs. Rosa Parks in Detroit. His distinguished career includes his post as president of the American Bar Association. He also served as a member of the Michigan Supreme Court. He joins me tonight from Detroit. Mayor Archer, nice to have you on the program again, sir.

Dennis Archer: Tavis, thank you for having me.

Tavis: I had the pleasure, as I mentioned, of speaking at Mrs. Parks' first memorial service in Montgomery. You were there, today, at the last service in Detroit. Of course in the middle, we saw her lie in repose in the Capitol Rotunda, the first the woman to ever be so honored. Let me start by asking whether or not you think Mrs. Parks received, did we give her a proper home going?

Archer: I don't think there's any question whatsoever. I watched what was occurring down in Montgomery. I thought you all did a spectacular job there. And then for the United States Congress to come together, to allow her, the first woman and of course the first the woman of color to be lying in repose at the Rotunda, that was an outstanding recognition of the contribution of a woman who changed America.

Tavis: What was it like to be in that service today? Again, I was pleased to be in Montgomery, in her home church, the church she grew up in there. But today was the final service in her adopted home of Detroit, where she spent most years of her life. In fact, what was it like being in that church, Greater Grace, in Detroit today?

Archer: I gotta believe it was probably no different for us here in Detroit as you felt in Montgomery, which is where she resided, and where she decided on December 1st, 1955, not to get out of her seat. But as you mentioned, because she did live here, and live the balance of her life here, there's a sense of ownership. And thus you had people standing, we had 42,000 people to view her body at the Museum of African American History.

And it was, the people who came out, and a lot of them just stood in the rain, some people were in the line between two and five hours, just to view her body. Then, of course, people started lining up at 6:00 last night for a 9:00 AM opening of Greater Grace, the church in which we had her funeral service. And it was just absolutely packed.

Tavis: Tell me about your relationship with Mrs. Parks. I mentioned earlier that near the end of her life you were in charge of her estate, in charge of her affairs. But as a long time resident of course, and former Mayor of the city, I know over the years you have had many occasions to spend time with Mrs. Parks.

Archer: I had a chance, obviously, to hear about her before I met her. When I met her, she was working for Congressman John Conyers where she worked for some 20 years. And I began to appreciate the depth of her contribution, when I was going to law school. And clearly, after I'd started practicing law. And the more you saw her, you could not imagine someone who was so small in stature, so self-effacing, so caring, so bright, so brilliant.

And yet someone who you would not appreciate as being a celebrity. And yet, as I'm sure you experienced, Tavis, every time she was ever acknowledged in a room, everybody instantaneously, I don't care what city you are in, everybody immediately got up out of their seat and gave her a standing ovation. That's because of who she was. And there was a lot of that today at the funeral. There was laughter; there were tears; there was a lot of remembrance. It was a great going home transition.

Tavis: To your point, over the course of my lifetime, I had the occasion to go to dinner with her. I have literally, literally walked into restaurants with her, and people would stop in the middle of their meals, see her walk in, and stand up in restaurants, to greet her as she walked in. She was quite well received all around the country. And then, indeed, the world.

Let me ask you, because I assume, Mayor Archer, that this moment is going to be used - I saw a piece as a matter of fact the other day in the "New York Times" that talked about how the passage of Mrs. Parks, and just weeks ago, of John H. Johnson, the founder of 'Ebony' and 'Jet.' And before that, Ossie Davis, we're losing some of the big guns in black America. Some of those persons who paved the way. What do you think this moment ought to be used for, if anything, to galvanize, to get black America moving at a faster pace in a progressive direction?

Archer: Tavis, literally everybody from Rev. Joe Lowery, to Rev. Al Sharpton, to T.D. Jakes, to all of them. All of the speakers admonished us to do a Rosa Parks moment. I mean, President Clinton, Secretary - Senator Hillary Clinton, our Governor, everybody. Governor Jennifer Granholm was asking, 'Don't let her just be acknowledged with a lot of love and affection.'

Do something. Do a Rosa Parks moment. Make a contribution. Join an entity that you - maybe you want to help find a cure for cancer, or maybe you want to help build homes. Or maybe you just want to do something to help mankind, but do something. That was the message given to all of us. And I hope, literally, everybody will could that.

Tavis: I wonder whether or not you think her legacy is secure? I raise that, because it seems that the farther we get away from the passage of giants like MLK, for example, the more we learn, the more spin, the more people try to degrade what their contribution was. How safe and how secure do you think her legacy is?

Archer: Well, first of the all, let me just say to you that I don't think for example, that Dr. Martin Luther King's holiday, that's done great things for keeping his memory alive. So, I think there's a lot of energy, it occurs in high schools, it occurs in schools across the United States. When we celebrated the 50th anniversary of 'Brown vs. the Board of Education,' we did it for a full year, both in the Bar Association and in communities throughout the United States. And that held focus for that whole year, to sort of make up for what we had forgotten.

And so with Mrs. Parks, I don't think we're ever going to forget that. And you know why, Tavis? It's because she was a person without title. A small person. A person who was gracious, who decided that she was not going to get up. You know, most people think that the only thing she was going to subject herself to was just simply being arrested, booked and then put on some kind of trial.

The reality of it is, is that several months before she decided not to get up, there was a Negro, or colored person, as was called at that time, a serviceman, who got on the front of the bus, paid his fare, and as opposed to getting off, walking into the back of the bus to sit down in the colored section, he walked in uniform, down to sit in the colored section. The bus driver stopped the bus, told him he had to get off and go back outside through the front door coming in. And he refused. They arrested him, and he wound up being shot and killed by the police officers. So she put her life on the line. I don't think anybody will forget that.

Tavis: Mayor Archer, I'm delighted as always to have out program, thank you for sharing your memories of the life and legacy of Mrs. Rosa Parks. We'll talk to you again some other time. Thank you, Mayor.

Archer: Thank you very much.

Tavis: Glad to have you on. Up next on this program, 'The Boondocks' creator, Aaron McGruder. And then later on, some of my own personal reflections about the life and times of Mrs. Parks. Stay with us.