Angela Davis wrote these words in 2016, linking the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson to the long history of Black liberation movements and to solidarity work with Palestine. A former political prisoner herself, she spent sixteen months in jail on false charges before an international campaign won her acquittal in 1972. She knew firsthand that the rights people enjoy today were never handed down freely; they were built, generation after generation, by people who refused to accept less. For her, gratitude is not passive; it means recognizing that someone else's struggle handed you the ground you stand on.
Reflection
The rights people exercise now were fought for by generations before them. What freedom do I have today that someone else fought hard to win?