SAN DIEGO - A community college celebrates a civil rights icon.
Students and staff at San Diego Mesa College held a march through campus Thursday honoring the life and legacy of Rosa Parks. They held signs and posters, most marching in silent reflection.
"For me, it was really important to be able to be amongst greatness,” Ashanti Hands, president of San Diego Mesa College, told NBC 7.
Hands says she appreciates the ongoing work for equity and justice the faculty along with current and former students are doing. It was a full circle moment for the educator, who was at Mesa College when Rosa Parks visited the campus in 1992.
The Rosa Parks Transit Center on Mesa College Drive.Photo: San Diego Mesa College
“She inspired, in so many ways, to be able to see the way that her legacy lives in my life is amazing,” said Hands. “And, now to be president of a campus who was bold and courageous and smart enough to acknowledge her, to institutionalize her legacy and the way that she operated is amazing.”
Today a bus stop with small rose garden on Mesa College Drive honors an important woman in Black history.
Mesa College will be hosting a number of Black History events this month.
Photo: San Diego Mesa College