Four Navy sailors marched to the front of an assembled crowd to present the colors as another sailor sang the national anthem. Looking on, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus noted that all five of the service members — men and women — wore the same white uniform.
Mabus shared the symbolic observation Monday afternoon at the Boston Public Library as he named two new refueling ships in honor of 19th century abolitionist leaders Lucy Stone and Sojourner Truth, women who were pioneers on the winding road toward equality.
For years, women routinely had to wear different uniforms and were barred from many duties. But on Monday, Mabus told the audience, “you weren’t looking at male sailors or female sailors, you were looking at sailors, and that’s the way it ought to be.”
Mabus is visiting Boston for two days to name the Navy’s new fleet replenishment oilers after human and civil rights leaders. The ships fuel Navy vessels at sea and provide jet fuel for planes on aircraft carriers.
On Tuesday, Mabus will name a replenishment oiler for Robert F. Kennedy. The announcement will be made at 11 a.m. at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Dorchester.
On Monday, Mabus presented his efforts to make the service more inclusive as a continuation of the battles begun generations ago by such people as Stone and Truth.
Both “fought relentlessly and ceaselessly for all human rights, including things like prison reform and property rights and universal suffrage,” he said. “Yet abolition was the only cause for which they fought that they were able to see realized in their own lives.”
Stone, who died in 1893 , was a Massachusetts native and an early advocate against slavery and for women’s rights. She is credited with influencing the famed suffragist Susan B. Anthony and was remarkable in her time for keeping her last name after marriage.
Truth, a black woman who was born into slavery, escaped as an adult and became a powerful religious advocate for fellow women and African-Americans. Her storied speech, “Ain’t I a Woman,” remains a powerful indictment of oppression.
The announcement of the ship to honor Kennedy is expected to draw dignitaries, including his widow, Ethel Kennedy, and several other family members.
The ceremonies come as the Navy names a series of oilers in honor of civil rights leaders. The “John Lewis class” of vessels is named for the longtime Georgia congressman and a key player in the civil rights movement.
Other ships have been named for the slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk and former US Supreme Court chief justice Earl Warren, who led the court as it decided the historic Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case.
On Monday, Mabus also announced the sponsors for the Truth and Stone ships. Sponsors take part in christening ceremonies and often develop a lasting relationship with the ships and their crews.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will sponsor the Stone ship, while Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, will fill the role in honor of Sojourner Truth.
For Edelman, this week’s events are doubly meaningful. In 1967, she brought Robert Kennedy, then a US senator, on a tour of the Mississippi Delta, helping to motivate his fight against poverty.
In an address Monday, she said Truth has long been an inspiration to her and read the inscription on a pendant she wears with a quotation from Truth.
“If women want any rights more than they’ve got, why don’t they just take them and not be talking about it?” it reads.
Wright takes those words to heart.
“These are our marching orders,” she said.
Andy Rosen can be reached at andrew.rosen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @andyrosen.