This last week has witnessed the deaths of two remarkable women. Separated by geography, they nonetheless were united by their life journeys, by the struggles they personified and by their impact.

I am referring to Lucille Times and Pat Hume, both women synonymous with the struggle for civil rights, justice and peace. One in the context of the United States since the 1930s, the other in Northern Ireland since the 1960s.

Lucille Times was one of the earliest activists for civil rights in her hometown of Montgomery, Alabama, a place pivotally associated with that movement. Along with her husband Charlie, she joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in the 1940s.  When Alabama outlawed that organisation in 1956, they used their family home for secret meetings. The couple continued to be fully active and participated in the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery. Throughout her life, Lucille was an outspoken advocate of civil rights in the context of widespread discrimination across the US.

Similarly, Pat Hume was central to the human rights movement in her hometown of Derry.  Alongside her husband John (leader of the Social, Democratic and Labour Party), she became a stalwart of the campaign at local and national level. She was immersed in the interests of her community and in the civil rights and peace project that dominated her life. Her contribution as a teacher, community worker, political adviser and local reference point was simply immense.  She was frequently referred to as a ‘colossus’ of the rights movement. 

Both women personified the struggle for civil rights in contexts of conflict that affected both personally. They experienced criticism and derision and inevitably personal, family and political threats. Without the tenacity, courage and energy of these two women (and very, very many more), we would not have made the progress realised to date.

In very real ways, both represented the core DNA of the struggle and in that they highlighted the importance and character of struggle itself. They worked tirelessly to build the agenda from the ground up, in the many everyday actions often in defiance of dominant ideas and behaviours official and unofficial.

Along with those many others, they breathed life into the agenda, and they helped sustain it in dark days.

In the public gaze, they were among the lesser-known faces and names, often overshadowed by others who rose to prominence. Nonetheless, they were representative of what became a powerful and unstoppable agenda for change, one that continues to this day despite ever-present setbacks. 

In this, they epitomised that broader universal struggle for equality, decency, mutual respect and dignity. 

As with the history of the civil rights and peace movements in both the US and Ireland, they illustrated the centrality of the role of women and of the wider civil society. So much of history (including the stories of Ireland and the United States) are written by men, for men and about men. The history of these movements and of the change they generated will remain incomplete and deficient until this reality is fully acknowledged and rectified. 

Both women and the struggles they represented experienced many dark times and significant setbacks. Their lives and their work required fortitude, strength and persistence. The impact their lives (and the lives of those around them) achieved was not realised easily. Hence the use of the term ‘struggle’. 

Malta is currently experiencing dark days. The stories and the impact of these two women should offer inspiration to all working for better days.