Friday, July 02, 2004

It was 40 years ago today...


7/2/64 - LBJ prepares to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964


The Kerry campaign has released an eloquent statement on the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, correctly observing that...
...as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. understood, in truth, it ‘was … written in the streets’ of America. It was written by foot soldiers in the sweltering heat of cities and towns all across the South. It was written by freedom fighters, who climbed aboard buses and marched into the blast of fire hoses and the bark of dogs, without ever resorting to violence. It was written by men and women like John Lewis, Hosea Williams, Ralph David Abernathy, Dorothy Height, Ella Baker and Julian Bond who put their minds and their bodies into the crucible of hatred, so we would all see a better day. And it was written by three brave young men, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner who wanted to give their time and energy to help African-Americans exercise their right to vote but ended up tragically giving their lives.
That's all true, but in fact, all of their efforts might have been for naught if Lyndon Johnson had not brought his formidable powers to bear in securing passage of the Act, and if he had not had the personal integrity and political courage to sign it.

Yeah, I know. The war. It was terrible, and the distortions he used to justify escalation (no, he didn't start it) were awful. The fact that I ended up getting caught up in it might justify a different judgment on my part, but I grew up in a country where Jim Crow and lynchings and fire hoses and police dogs were part of our daily news, not our tragic history. My kids didn't have to grow up in that country, and LBJ deserves a lot of the credit. That's one reason he is, and always will be, one of my Democratic heroes.

Our long march to liberty isn't over, but we took a giant step 40 years ago today.

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