When our children see the news right now, what are they thinking? We are at a moment where adults everywhere are reminded once again that we must all continue to strive to be the examples we want our children to emulate.
On July 25, the day that would have been Emmett Till’s 82nd birthday, President Joe Biden hosted a White House signing ceremony for a proclamation establishing the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument in Mississippi and Illinois.
When 10-year-old Maite Rodriguez was murdered by an assault rifle in her fourth-grade classroom alongside two teachers and 18 classmates, her parents had to identify her body by those favorite sneakers.
Gus Newport, who passed away in June, was a warrior for social justice, equality, and peace who spent his life pushing local, national, and international communities to get closer to “best.”
Christine King Farris, who passed away on June 29 at age 95, embodied a legacy of servant-leadership as an educator and activist. She taught generations of students at Spelman College and helped establish the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Change in Atlanta, where she served as a founding board member, vice-chair, and treasurer.
The Fourth of July holiday is meant to bring Americans together to celebrate the promise of our Declaration of Independence. This year we are reminded again of the work that still needs to be done to make our nation live up to its ideals.
On June 12, 1967, Supreme Court justices ruled 9-0 that Virginia’s law banning interracial marriage and all others like it were unconstitutional and that the freedom to marry was “a basic civil right.”
Our nation is about to celebrate its third commemoration of Juneteenth as a federal holiday, marking the jubilant day in June 1865 when many enslaved people in Texas finally learned they were free from federal troops arriving in Galveston after the end of the Civil War. The news came more than two and a half years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freeing all slaves in the Confederate states.