Dick Durbin: “last week Chicago--and America--lost a civil rights leader and an icon. Rev. Willie T. Barrow passed away at the age of…”

“last week Chicago--and America--lost a civil rights leader and an icon. Rev. Willie T. Barrow passed away at the age of 90. Known as the ``Little Warrior,'' Reverend Barrow stood up to anyone who would deny equality. In 1936, 10 years before the Montgomery bus boycott, 12-year-old Willie Barrow challenged the segregated Texas school system that refused to bus African-American kids to school. In a recent interview, Reverend Barrow described it this way. One day, Barrow had enough and confronted the bus driver and school officials. ``You got plenty room,'' Barrow said she told the bus driver and school officials. ``Why you want me to get off? Because I'm black? We got to change that.'' She was right. And from that moment, she dedicated her life to fighting for social justice and standing up for the most vulnerable in our society. In 1945, she came to Chicago and worked as a youth minister and a field organizer with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. At the height of the civil rights movement, she followed Dr. King to Atlanta, where she organized meetings, rallies and transportation for volunteers who came to participate in the marches and sit-ins. She also helped organize the 1963 march on Washington. Reverend Barrow didn't just fight for racial equality, she fought for women's rights, labor rights and gay rights too. While she helped Rev. Jesse Jackson start Operation Breadbasket on the South Side of Chicago, she was fighting sexism within the civil rights movement.…”