The problem with being part of a civil rights movement is that at some point, someone will believe you’ve “won.”
Someone will assume that civil rights movements — the fights for equality and justice, the battles to exist — have a defined beginning, middle, and end. You go from a bad thing to a good thing. You are lost, and then you are found. And you win — you win freedom and respect, and now you’re secretary of the army or adopting children in Alabama. Or you’re married, finally, in every state in the Union. And now your story is over.
But that’s not how it works.