In watching the historic presidential innauguration of Barack Obama on Tuesday, I had to think of the thank-you notes that should be sent out and to whom they should be sent.

Over the years of civil rights, the fight has been fought by so many people. People like Rosa Parks, Julian Bond, John Lewis, The Freedom Riders, the marchers, Medgar Evers, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Jackie Robinson, Roy Wilkins, Emmett Till, the four little girls who lost their lives in Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing, Jesse Owens, Malcolm X, and, yes, Dr. Martin Luther King.

The civil rights were anything but civil, as the fight for freedom was paved by the blood of many a good people. Brutal beatings, hangings, bombings, and attacks with dogs, firehoses, and the relentless bigotry of many closed-minded people.

The jargon of the times had black people being called “boy,” “coon” and the N-word among others and the reasoning was nothing more than “that’s the way it was.” People, both black and white, grew up accepting that this was what was commonplace in America. The Civil Rights Movement questioned this acceptance and made people take notice to the inequalities that were running rampant at the time.

To now call Barack Obama Mr. President is a path that has been long in the making. To walk the path less traveled by, arm in arm with your friends while doing what you know in your heart is right and just, and to also gain the knowledge and insight that this trip brings is true justice.

It has taken decades and decades of peaceful and sometimes not so peaceful triumphs and tragedies to bring us to this historic time in our history. We need to make sure to take some time to reflect and look back to the people, places and events that shaped why we are going forward. A simple thank you or a reflective prayer is needed to ensure that the events that carved out our past and solidified our future do not go by the wayside.

The courageous spirits and souls of the past that endured the hatred and the ridicule of what we now know as equality will be written down as historic today. Let us bring that same history to the forefront and never forget the silent and brutal sacrifices of the millions that made this day possible.

Congratulations, Mr. President, and Godspeed.

Tribune Publisher Scott Schmeltzer’s column appears every Thursday.