The struggle continues for civil rights in America.

MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry repeated this phrase often in her lecture to emphasize women’s fights for inclusion, privacy, labor and reproductive justice today.

Harris-Perry began with a thesis on democracy and how that thesis relates to civil rights.

“To live in a democracy is the right to govern, not to simply be governed,” Harris-Perry said.

Harris-Perry went on to say that, to her, a democracy is a diverse system. That diverse system, she said, did not come without struggles.

A picture of two lynching victims flashed on the screen.

The nearly 500 audience members grew silent and gazed toward the front of the Great Hall.

Harris-Perry said she wanted the audience to focus on the citizens below the dangling bodies. She noted that some were smiling and pointing at the bodies, but that some had turned their faces away from the camera.

“That struggle for freedom happens on real bodies,” Harris-Perry said.

There is value in being ashamed of lynching, Harris-Perry said. She said the first step in ending the act of racism is first being ashamed of it.

Harris-Perry mentioned moments in civil and women’s rights history, while focusing on what she called “the missing truths.”

Feminism, Harris-Perry said, is about asking what truths are missing.

Harris-Perry mentioned different ways women have shaped the civil rights movement.

She started with women’s suffering and mourning.

Harris-Perry shared stories of Martin Luther King Jr. and how his wife, Coretta Scott King, kept King’s legacy alive with her mourning his death.

“It’s her mourning that keeps alive possibility of justice,” Harris-Perry said.

Women’s leadership roles include listening skills that aren’t seen in men, Harris-Perry said.

One of the most important civil rights wins of the last decade, the labor movement, was accomplished by women listening to women, Harris-Perry said.

Harris-Perry shared examples of recent female influences such as Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Rachel Maddow and Nancy Pelosi. In 2008, three women ran for the U.S. Senate. In 2010, 14 women ran.

Though these women have made new opportunities for women, Harris-Perry said, the struggle still continues.

Harris-Perry said women have lost ground in terms of other civil rights such as reproductive justice or American citizenship.

“We can’t rest,” Harris-Perry said. “We have to go back and remember those models of women’s leadership.”

Crystal Peoples, a graduate student in math, said she liked how Harris-Perry presented the stereotypical roles of nurturing in women as a sign of strength.

A’Ja Lyve, junior in linguistics, said she is a big Harris-Perry fan.

“She speaks truth,” Lyve said. “The fight’s never ending.”

Harris-Perry’s speech was part of the university’s Women and Leadership Series.