On July 2, 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other Civil Rights leaders stood inside the White House to witness President Lyndon B. Johnson sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. With this, all Jim Crow laws and other forms of racial discrimination became illegal nationwide.
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The Civil Rights Act was a dream for President John F. Kennedy, who worked alongside Dr. King on several civil rights matters but was assassinated two years before the law was passed. In a speech addressing the American people the evening of the signing, Johnson called it a “proud triumph” in the ongoing struggle for equality. He urged Americans to “close the springs of racial poison” and “make our nation whole.”
But has America lived up to a standard that the Department of Labor calls a “benchmark” for this nation’s civil rights legislation? Since 1964, the United States has made tremendous progress in attempts to right the wrongs of the past, but recent history has proven it might not be enough.
Barack Obama became the country’s first Black president in 2008. Although Obama’s election represented hope and promise for Black people, the 2016 election of Donald Trump quickly throttled this progress after the former president was accused of inciting racial violence through his “Make America Great Again” campaign.
In 2022, Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black woman to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice — once again promising social change and serving as an inspiration for Black folks. Since her nomination, however, the nation’s highest court ruled against Affirmative Action — designed to protect Black people from discrimination in collegiate and professional spaces — and overturned Roe v. Wade, which disproportionately harms Black women.
Even in 2024, Black Americans are killed by police at a disproportionate rate in comparison to any other ethnic group in the U.S., according to statistics from The Washington Post.
Clearly, the fight is not over. There is still much work to be done in order to truly honor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and all of the Black activists who paved the way for Americans today.
In a statement honoring the anniversary, President Joe Biden said “We must continue to move forward together, stand with one another, and choose democracy over autocracy and beloved community over chaos. We must choose to be believers, dreamers, and doers.”
As this nation celebrates 60 years of the Civil Rights Act, it’s important to acknowledge the past while also working towards a better future for generations to come.
Straight From 
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