ByPamela Gentry, Senior Political Producer

Posted Dec. 17, 2007 – Funeral arrangements are planned for Saturday, Dec. 22 in Indianapolis, for Rep. Julia Carson (D-Ind.) who died Saturday at home.  On Friday, December 21, the Indiana lawmaker will lie in state at the Indian State Capitol, allowing a final farewell from the Indianapolis community she served for more than a decade.
The business of the 7th District will continue under the supervision of the Clerk of the House of Representatives until her successor is sworn in.
Carson was 69. Carson’s career is filled with “firsts,” but she will always be remembered for leading the charge to bestow civil rights activist Rosa Parks with the Congressional Medal of Honor.  I witnessed the pride she felt in June 1999 when the medal was finally presented  to Parks in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. 
Rep. Carolyn C. Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), who heads the Congressional Black Caucus, remembered Carson as an “esteemed colleague, friend and sister.”
“As a tireless public servant for over 35 years, ‘Miss Julia’ was unapologetically outspoken and equally relentless in her pursuit of parity for women and minorities in Indiana’s Seventh Congressional District and across the globe. She was a stalwart for social justice and a trailblazer – serving as the first woman and first African American Indianapolis has ever sent to Congress,” she said.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) praised his colleague as a “trailblazer and an inspiration.” “She was not only a friend and a colleague, but a kindred spirit in the fight for equality and justice. The support that she generously offered me over these last few years, as well as her dignity, good humor, and faith, will never be forgotten,” he said.
 Sen. Evan Bayh, (D-Ind.) praised his fellow native as someone who ” overcame much and accomplished much, and devoted her life to helping other people do the same. She was elected to important public offices, but never forgot who she was, where she came from or who she was there to serve.”
“The Congressional Black Caucus, the United States House of Representatives and the world has lost a star and a stripe,” Kilpatrick said.