As I walked through Bedford Stuyvesant I noticed how some folks planted flowers in worn shoes. What a poetic image! It reminded me of a quote I read recently by journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates:

“The fact of history is that black people have not – probably no people have ever – liberated themselves strictly through their own efforts… History is not solely in our hands. And still you are called to struggle, not because it assures you a victory but because it assures you of an honorable and sane life.”