Rosa Parks, the heart of the civil rights movement, died at her home Monday.
When the KKK tried to adopt part of the I-55 freeway outside of St. Louis under the highway cleanup adoption plan, which would force the state into acknowledging the group’s effort with a sign, the Highway Department responded by naming that stretch of the freeway the “Rosa Parks” freeway. Every time I head down south, I see that sign and I’m reminded that the civil rights movement didn’t stop when the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964.
Fifty years ago, by quietly refusing to give up her seat to a white man on the bus, Mrs. Parks taught us that the fight for equality is just that: a fight. A struggle. True equality does not come about by compromise and complacency–something to remember, because the struggle still continues.