What will you remember to celebrate and teach in the coming years?
In 2005, will you remember ...
The determination of Rosa Parks who, in 1955, refused to move from her bus seat? Will you remember the conviction of the black residents of Montgomery, Ala., who boycotted city buses and walked and carpooled to work for 381 days, demanding the end of segregated busing in the city and elsewhere?
In 2006, will you remember ...
The voice of the U.S. Supreme Court, which declared in 1956's Browder vs. Gayle that Mrs. Parks and Montgomery's boycotters were right — that bus segregation laws defied our Constitution's principles of equality and freedom?
In 2007, will you remember ...
The bravery and fear of nine black school children who integrated Little Rock's Central High School in 1957, encountering white rage so hot that federalized troops had to attend school, too?
In 2008, will you remember ...
The hope of 10,000 students who participated in the 1958 Youth March for Integrated Schools?
In 2009, will you remember ...
The groundswell of youth — 25,000 strong — who joined the second Youth March for Integrated Schools in 1959?
In 2010, will you remember ...
The defiance of North Carolina college students who in 1960 began sit-ins at Whites-only lunch counters, prompting a nation to confront segregation in public facilities?
In 2011, will you remember ...
The blood spilled by Freedom Riders — black, white and brown, Christian and Jew, from across the U.S. — who dared to travel the South in 1961 in integrated buses and were met all too often by violence?
Will you remember Freedom Rider Walter Bergman, beaten so badly by a white mob in Anniston, Ala., that he suffered a stroke and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair?
In 2012, will you remember ...
The victims of a 1962 riot at the University of Mississippi, which was spawned by violent white resistance to the enrollment of James Meredith, a black student? Will you remember the 28 federal marshals who were shot, the 130 people injured and the death of European reporter Paul Guilhard, killed by a mob's rage?
Will you remember that in 1962, Cesar Chavez created the United Farm Workers Association to confront the plight of California's Latino migrant farm workers — and reminded us all that political and economic freedom transcends the black/white paradigm?
In 2013, will you remember ...
The 250,000 people who traveled from across our great nation to converge at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom? Will you take the time to read the entire "I Have a Dream" speech the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered that day?
In 2014, will you remember ...
Our nation ratified the 24th Amendment in 1964 and spoke to equality: "In the United States of America, in our democracy, you don't have to pay to vote"?
Will you remember that in 1964 Patsy Mink became the first Asian American woman elected to the U.S. Congress — a reminder that great Americans come from all ethnicities and races?
Will you remember that in 1964 the Rev. Bruce Klunder was killed — run over by a bulldozer — protesting at a construction site for a new segregated school in Ohio? Will you remember the struggle for equal education exists in every region of our great nation?
Will you remember the efforts of the 1,000 young volunteers during 1964's Freedom Summer to register African Americans in Mississippi to vote? Will you remember that their work was not easy — that three civil rights workers were murdered that summer, that dozens of volunteers were beaten, 37 black churches bombed and 30 homes burned?
Will you remember that, finally, after centuries of endurance by people of color, after a decade of organized, multiracial struggle and sacrifice, the U.S. Congress finally passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting racial discrimination in public accommodations and employment?
And Never Forget...
The struggle for justice, equality and freedom did not end in 1964.