At Funeral Service For Alma Speed Fox, Pittsburgh Leaders Recount Her Civil Rights Civil Rights Leadership And More
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A service of remembrance and thanksgiving for Alma Speed Fox was held on Thursday in honor of a woman often called the mother of civil rights in Pittsburgh.
As Jon Delano reports, the service was a chance for many friends to remember her contributions over the decades.
Inclement weather outside did not prevent family and friends of the late civil rights icon from gathering inside at Calvary Episcopal Church in East Liberty.
"Loving God, you gave us a giant. You gave us someone to admire, to imitate, to love," the Reverend Dr. Moni McIntyre told the congregation as the service began.
Fox, who passed away last week at age 98, was eulogized for her faith, family, and decades of leadership at the NAACP, all while mentoring hundreds of local Black leaders.
"I am one of her civil rights daughters I know that span generations," said Celeste Taylor, a community justice organizer.
"How do you honor a giant?" asked Tim Stevens, chair of the Black Political Empowerment Project
Her influence went well beyond race, as McIntyre noted, standing up for women's rights, gay rights, human rights – often before it was popular.
"You wonder why a civil rights icon such as Alma Speed Fox would ask a white person to do her funeral service," she said from the pulpit. "The short answer, sisters and brothers, is that the life and love and faith of Alma Speed Fox led her to sacrifice so that all persons may be treated justly."
"She did not just act on behalf of oppressed persons who looked like her. The life and love and faith of Alma Speed Fox was such that right and wrong, justice and injustice, were clear, and she knew which said of right and wrong, justice and injustice, she wanted to be on."
Her granddaughter, Kauschia McCloud, seemed to speak for her grandmother when she urged the following: "I challenge you to make an impact on somebody else in the community just as she did."
A fitting message for someone who pushed herself as much as she did those around her.
