“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.”-Angela Davis
Angela Davis is an educator, scholar, author, abolitionist, and activist for civil rights and social issues. Throughout her decades of work as an educator, Angela has fought for the American people, calling for justice against racism, sexism, poverty, and unjust mass incarceration. She has made a difference all over the world, as she has lectured in the United States as well as Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America. She continues to persist in her work against inequality and is the author of nine books. We thank Angela for her incredible advocacy and example. Thank you, Angela Davis. "Ever present God, you called us to be in relationship with one another and promised to dwell wherever two or three are gathered. In our community, we are many different people; we come from many different places, have many different cultures. Open our hearts that we may be bold in finding the riches of inclusion and the treasures of diversity among us. We pray in faith."
-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”-MLK
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter”-MLK Dr. Martin Luther King Junior was a civil rights leader and activist who led the Civil Rights movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968. His leadership in the movement led to ending the legal segregation of people of color in the South and other parts of the United States. His work was powerful, as he organized many marches, protests, and speeches and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior shows us what it means to be a leader for change, and we thank him for his advocacy. May he rest in power. Thank you, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Dissents speak to a future age. It’s not simply to say, ‘My colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way.’ But the greatest dissents do become court opinions and gradually over time their views become the dominant view. So that’s the dissenters' hope: that they are not writing for today, but for tomorrow.“- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“To make life a little better for people less fortunate than you, that’s what I think a meaningful life is. One lives not just for oneself but for one’s community.“- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the second female and the first Jewish female associate justice on the Supreme Court from 1993 until her departure in 2020. Before her work on the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg graduated from Columbia Law School and went on to teach at multiple universities, including Columbia Law, where she became the school’s first female tenured professor. During this time in her career, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was not only a professor, but also became a force in gender equality. She co-founded the Women’s Rights Project as a lawyer and brought cases to the Supreme Court that led to protections against gender discrimination. She continued her work for equality on the Supreme Court after becoming an associate justice. Her contributions to civil rights are endless, but some of her notable strides include; writing the majority opinion on the 1996 United States v. Virginia case-deeming it unconstitutional for taxpayer-funded schools to bar women, paving the way for the Equal Credit Opportunity act that allowed women to apply for credit cards and mortgages without a male co-signer, and pushing to protect pregnant women in the workplace. Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020 and became the first woman to lie in state. We thank her for her resilience and for fighting for the American people. May her memory be a blessing. “If you see something that’s not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something about it.”-John Lewis.
“If not us, then who? If not now, then when?”-John Lewis John Lewis was one of the leaders of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, and he continued his fight for people's rights after joining Congress in 1987, serving in the House of Representatives for Georgia’s fifth congressional district until his departure in 2020. John Lewis fought for equality. He was the youngest speaker at the march on Washington in 1963, and he continued to take a stand. He is recognized as a change maker and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2011, Martin Luther King Junior’s Non-violent Peace Prize in 1975, the John F. Kennedy profile in courage award in 2001, and the NAACP Spingarn Medal in 2002. He passed away this year, on July 17, 2020. He will be remembered as one of the greatest civil rights leaders in history, and we thank him every day for his work to fight for the American people. May he rest in power. Thank you, John Lewis. “Good and gracious God, you invite us to recognize and reverence your divine image and likeness in our neighbor. Enable us to see the reality of racism and free us to challenge and uproot it from our society, our world and ourselves.” -Sisters of Mercy
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