Many white people have been moved by the current movement, but how will they respond when true equality threatens their privilege?
By Charles M. Blow, The New York Times
In 1964, during what was called Freedom Summer, over 700 mostly white young liberals descended on Mississippi to help register black voters.
The attention that effort generated helped convince the powers in Washington to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In fact, white liberals were involved in many parts of the civil rights movement, in participation, organization and funding.
But the backlash was quick. A New York Times survey conducted just months after the Civil Rights Act was passed found that most white New Yorkers believed that the civil rights movement had gone too far.
Featured Image, Craig Ruttle/Associated Press
Full article @ The New York Times
CONTEXT: Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. 88–352, 78 Stat. 241, enacted July 2, 1964) is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requirements, and racial segregation in schools, employment, and public accommodations.
Initially, powers given to enforce the act were weak, but these were supplemented during later years. Congress asserted its authority to legislate under several different parts of the United States Constitution, principally its power to regulate interstate commerce under Article One (section 8), its duty to guarantee all citizens equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment, and its duty to protect voting rights under the Fifteenth Amendment.
The legislation had been proposed by President John F. Kennedy in June 1963, but it was opposed by filibuster in the Senate. After Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed the bill forward. The United States House of Representatives passed the bill on February 10, 1964, and after a 54-day filibuster, passed the United States Senate on June 19, 1964. The final vote was 290–130 in the House of Representatives and 73–27 in the Senate. After the House agreed to a subsequent Senate amendment, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law by President Johnson at the White House on July 2, 1964.
In June 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County and two other cases that employment protections against discrimination on the basis of sex also apply to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity
Civil Rights Act of 1964. (2020). Retrieved July 02, 2020, from Wikipedia.