At a time when our nation needed its legal community to step forward and join in the struggle for equality, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law was born. I was privileged to be present in the East Room of the White House on the day that President Kennedy urged a group of 244 lawyers to use their training and influence to further the goals of the civil rights movement.

There can be few scenes sadder than what transpired Saturday in Chicago when children with tear stained cheeks solemnly said goodbye to their friend and classmate, Hadiya Pendleton. The 15 year-old honor student was laid to rest in her favorite color – purple – after becoming the latest victim of random gun violence in her city. Perhaps it was because she was such a promising bright light, a friendly and passionate young woman who seemed destined for success that made her death so tragic and maddening. Every movement needs a singular act of outrage to draw attention to the larger struggle. During the civil rights movement, the killing of four little girls in the bombing of a Birmingham Alabama church was such a moment that outraged a nation and elevated the horrors of Jim Crow in the nation’s consciousness.

America stands at a crossroads. We can take the high road toward equal access to high quality public education, reaffirm our commitment to democratically elected public officials, end the failed war on drugs, recommit to the right of workers to bargain for better conditions, lower our dreadful rate of hyper-incarceration and implement the affordable care act. Or we can travel in the opposite direction and move the nation away from equal opportunity and justice.

Republicans are strongly signaling they will back an immigration plan along the outlines of what President Barack Obama proposed Tuesday, creating the potential for an almost unprecedented occurrence: Obama signing a major bill without an extended fight with the GOP.