Simmons graduate Gwen Ifill, moderator and managing editor of PBS' "Washington Week" and senior correspondent for "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," spoke recently at the memorial service honoring the late civil rights leader Rosa Parks, who died Oct. 24 at the age of 92. The memorial service at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., was attended by hundreds of mourners from around the country. Here is Gwen's tribute:
The year I was born, Rosa Parks decided to become my hero.
She did not know this. She certainly did not know of me.
I was an A.M.E. preacher's kid…the fifth of six… who, throughout our lives, were taught about the power of possibility.
This was, in part, because of the type of courage Rosa Parks embodied. With a solitary, sacrificial act, she became the kind of black woman I would spend the rest of my life striving to be.
...the kind of woman who bristled at injustice because she worshipped a just God...
...the kind of woman who saw the value in shades of gray...but also the value in black, and white…
...the kind of woman who did not have to raise her voice - ever - because she possessed the gift of that kind of quiet moral authority that can silence a room, or a nation...
...the kind of woman who understood that what she was called... called...to do that day in 1955, was to shoulder a necessary burden.
Yesterday, from this pulpit, one of our ministers here at Metropolitan, the Reverend Kimberly Barnes, preached from 1st Thessalonians...
Perhaps because I was thinking of what I would say here today, this portion of the 14th verse in the second chapter, reminded me of Mrs. Parks...
It reads: "Because when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe."
In 1955, the word of man dictated that we sit in the back of the bus, drink from separate water fountains, eat at separate lunch counters.
The word of God, as received through Rosa Parks, said otherwise.
And because of that, we have laws that protect us, leaders who respect us, journalists who represent us, and entertainers and business moguls who enlighten us.
All because of the courage of the woman we want our daughters -- and sons -- to grow up to be.
So it is perfectly fitting that we gather here, at a church founded by freed blacks who would not allow others to deny them their right to worship…in a sanctuary where Frederick Douglass' funeral was held…and where Paul Laurence Dunbar, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Eleanor Roosevelt spoke…
And in a place and a time, where our young people need to be reminded that there is more to courage than to get rich or die tryin'…
…that there is often more to be gained in the quiet conviction of a solitary act, than in shouting and swagger…
We are reminded today what a hero really is.
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