Justice & Law Quote by Jim Costa

The language is reverent, safe, and strategically small-c conservative in its ambitions: praise without friction. Jim Costa, speaking as a working politician, reaches for the familiar memorial toolkit - “lasting contributions,” “legacy lives on,” “continued struggle,” “She will be missed” - phrases designed to travel well across constituencies and news cycles. The intent is clear: align with Rosa Parks’ moral authority, signal respect, and avoid saying anything that could be read as partisan provocation.

That’s also the subtext. By locating Parks primarily in the past tense of national memory, the quote turns a disruptive figure into a consensus icon. Parks didn’t just “contribute”; she refused, knowingly inviting conflict and consequence. Costa’s wording smooths that rough edge. “Continued struggle for civil rights around the world” is expansive enough to sound urgent while remaining noncommittal about the specific fights at home - voting access, policing, housing, labor - that legislators are routinely asked to take positions on. The global frame functions as a pressure-release valve: it honors the movement while diffusing responsibility.

Context matters because Parks’ legacy is often invoked as a civic ornament: a way for institutions to claim proximity to courage without naming the structures that punished her in the first place. The quote works rhetorically because it’s nearly impossible to disagree with. Its weakness is the same feature: it treats Parks as a symbol of unity rather than a reminder that “civil rights” has always meant conflict, not comfort.