On this day, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964. Signing this bill on July 2 was important because it signified a new type of independence and freedom for Black Americans. However, this great achievement came at a heavy cost for many.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had made it “illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It ended school, work, and public facility discrimination, and barred unequal application of voter registration requirements.” It was landmark legislation, and the support from the administration was needed for the advancement of people of color and the Civil Rights Movement. But, it’s important to remember that given the long uphill fight that Black Americans had been facing with segregation for decades, the bill really came to be from the voices of the people. Not just from the support from the administration.
Leading up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, there had been a number of anti-segregation boycotts and protests that had pushed for a change that made the Civil Rights Act a possibility. A few historic moments of desegregation:
1954 Brown v. Board of Education: U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional.
1957 Little Rock 9: The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine black students who enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Montgomery bus boycott in 1955: Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a White woman.
“I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. in Washington, D.C., in 1963.
These historic moments and so many others had advanced the cause of the Civil Rights Act, but it’s important to remember that it came with a great sacrifice. Racism and bigotry was (and in many ways still is) a part of American identity and culture. We read about these moments of desegregation, and it is inspiring to learn about these incredible acts of courage. However, these moments had real people tied to them with trauma resulting in many due to the heated racism of the time.
Because of these sacrifices, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was not only a large step for the community to desegregate, but became the drive for other legislation. The most notable follow-up being the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which protects the right to vote for Black Americans. These were great victories for the community, but again, it didn’t end racism in America.
What is often left unsaid is that Lyndon B. Johnson was highly representative of the country's identity at the time. Johnson “was a man of his time, and bore those flaws as surely as he sought to lead the country past them.” Despite signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it can’t go without notice that he was racist. He would often use the “N” word to describe Black Americans and had an incredibly hard time trusting civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. He had such distrust, that he had the FBI track their protests and their personal lives to make sure there was little disruption. Lyndon Johnson was a civil rights contributor, but also a racist.
Fast forward to the present day: segregation is still alive in America. Yes, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was an incredible milestone and people risked and sacrificed their lives for the legislation’s passage. No one is trying to discredit that. That said, it didn’t fix everything and there are still segregationists active in many corners of our nation. One of the largest examples of segregation in our country is in schools. A recent New York Times article stated that “More than half of the nation’s schoolchildren are in racially concentrated districts, where over 75 percent of students are either white or nonwhite.” Funding for these schools becomes an issue, and schools with majority children of color are more likely to receive less funding. According to a USA Today article, “nearly one-fifth of public schools have almost no children of color, while another one-fifth have almost no white children. The number of highly segregated nonwhite schools has tripled over the last quarter-century. What’s more, predominantly white school districts receive $23 billion more in funding compared with predominantly nonwhite school districts, according to a recent report.”
In sum, although racism and types of segregation are still alive today, the Civil Rights Act was a legislative milestone and an incredibly important part of American history. It proves that real change can come from the collective actions of people who march and protest and fight to make their voices heard.
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