Charles Payne remembers segregation as a teenager when Rosa Parks helped to spark the civil rights movement.
"I'm from Philadelphia, Miss., and I remember well when the boycott started and we couldn't believe a black woman had the courage not to move," said Payne, one of the first black professors in Ball State University's Teachers College. "Most of us would have been afraid."
Segregation is also a familiar topic for Robert Foster, a retired assistant professor of continuing education. Born and reared in Muncie, he was the first black man to teach at a public school in the city.
Foster experienced legally sanctioned racial discrimination as a high school athlete at restaurants.
"I remember as an athlete when the team traveled the coach had to call ahead to find out if the team would be able to eat together," Foster said.
In the South, Jim Crow laws required racial segregation in buses, public areas and restaurants.
Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955 triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system, led by Martin Luther King Jr.
Her courage helped to pass the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act that banned racial discrimination in public accommodations.
Parks' role as a civil rights pioneer was significant because "number one, she was a black woman, and number two, she came at a time when it was time for changes to be made," Foster said. "She became their catalyst, saying, it's time, it's time."
Ball State's Black Student Association officers agree that Parks influenced the equality that students can enjoy today.
"She gave up more than just her seat and she stood up for what she believed in, and that showed courage," BSA Vice President Brittny Smith said.
Tim Ryan, BSA director of social affairs, is an active participant in civil rights issues and equality, he said.
"Her not moving to the back of the bus for the white guy gives people a weapon to the people that want to speak up because now they can," Ryan said.
Foster said that black students today didn't experience and aren't experiencing segregation because there are now laws that prosecute businesses and institutions that discriminate.
Many students take racial equality for granted and aren't taking advantage of the opportunities that are available, Payne said.
"From my generation and what I have gone through, I would like for them to take more advantage of the opportunities," Payne said. "I'm not sure that I see the same opportunities as they do."
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