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The Passing of Rosa Parks
Statement from the Child Welfare League of America
On behalf of the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) and our 900 member child-caring, public and private agencies nationwide, we acknowledge the passing of a civil rights icon, Rosa Parks. Ms. Parks is best known for her refusal to relinquish her seat to a white man on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. This event helped to spark the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In response to Ms. Parks' defiance, blacks in Montgomery, Alabama boycotted the bus service for almost 13 months. During this period, Civil Rights Leaders were able to build a successful Supreme Court challenge to the Jim Crow law that enforced their second-class status on the public bus system.
The civil rights progress made by African Americans since that historical day when Rosa Parks refused to give-up her seat on a Montgomery bus is undeniable. We must, however, acknowledge and address the legacy of racism that continues to negatively impact children and families of color, including many of those who enter the child welfare system. To this day we find disproportionality and disparity of outcomes in that system of care - a reality that must be changed. We must examine the systemic factors impacting children as they enter the child welfare system and then mitigate and eventually eliminate those that result in racial disproportionality and disparity of outcomes.
Rosa Parks should be remembered for her commitment to equality and civil rights. We are grateful for what she accomplished in this regard during her lifetime and we mourn the passing of a woman of great courage and conviction. We must at the same time, however, acknowledge the ongoing struggle for equality within this country and recommit ourselves to becoming that more just and fair society.
Since 1920, The Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) has been the nation's pre-eminent memb ership-based organization dedicated to ensuring that disadvantaged and vulnerable children are protected from harm and have the tools and resources they need to grow into the healthy and happy adults we want them to become.
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