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50 years ago today- The Civil Rights Act

RJKarl

RJKarl

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It was a great day and a great accomplishment. LBJ changed this country for the positive.

Today, the SC is turning back the hands of time and eroding the right to vote.

State after state has enacted intentionally classist, ageist, racist voter suppression laws.

A major candidate for POTUS, Rand Paul has said he would have opposed the CRA.

For the first time since 1964, many places in our nation and some national leaders are openly and proudly taking us back to sadder days. This is almost unbelievable to someone who lived through those times.
 
It was landmark legislation to be sure. The passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was equally so. I lived through that era as well, and I share the general sentiment, RJ, that the current Supreme Court lately has done much to dismantle the good that came out of that legislation. Just last year the Court held that my state, Alabama, had demonstrated so much "progress" in the area of voting right rights that federal oversight of elections here was no longer needed. Well, it didn't take the good ol' boys down here long to pass new legislation making it harder on minorities to exercise the franchise.

People often say that "so much has changed" in race relations in the deep south since the 60's. However, I sense that not much has changed in the minds and hearts of many regarding race. It is sad.
 
Was kinda surprised that there was scant coverage of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation in 2013. I get that Reince Priebus and Rand Paul want to change the perception of the GOP among blacks, but people are never going to give more credit to historical events than things they can witness in real time. The Tea Party rallies with stuffed monkeys, etc...destroyed any potential goodwill for blacks with conservatives for at least another generation. Tea Party is incensed about Thad Cochran's outreach to black voters in his runoff, but I also don't see how bitching about blacks voting for a 'Pub in Mississippi is effective outreach, given the historical context.
 
meandmyuncleDeac said:
However, I sense that not much has changed in the minds and hearts of many regarding race. It is sad.
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Well it's a lot of the same hearts and minds. People act like the Civil Rights Act was a long time ago, but it was only 50 years. Most of the people who grew up in the lead up to the Civil Rights Act and aftermath are still alive. The average Senator was 13 when it passed.

I'm 38. It was only 12 years before I was born.
 
meandmyuncleDeac said:
It was landmark legislation to be sure. The passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was equally so. I lived through that era as well, and I share the general sentiment, RJ, that the current Supreme Court lately has done much to dismantle the good that came out of that legislation. Just last year the Court held that my state, Alabama, had demonstrated so much "progress" in the area of voting right rights that federal oversight of elections here was no longer needed. Well, it didn't take the good ol' boys down here long to pass new legislation making it harder on minorities to exercise the franchise.

People often say that "so much has changed" in race relations in the deep south since the 60's. However, I sense that not much has changed in the minds and hearts of many regarding race. It is sad.
Click to expand...

It's difficult to measure the extent to which hearts and minds have changed. As someone who was eight years old when the act was passed in 1964, I think societal attitudes toward race are better in 2014 than they were in 1964. That's not to say we don't still have problems, but we've definitely made progress, IMO.
 
PhDeac said:
Well it's a lot of the same hearts and minds. People act like the Civil Rights Act was a long time ago, but it was only 50 years. Most of the people who grew up in the lead up to the Civil Rights Act and aftermath are still alive. The average Senator was 13 when it passed.

I'm 38. It was only 12 years before I was born.
Click to expand...

Was also 2 years before Obama started kindergarten. Some people complained that it took until 2008 for America to elect its first black president (sorry, Bubba), but the timing was about as best as could be expected given the limited opportunities. Brown vs Board of Education was decided a decade earlier, but lots of states played rope a dope well into the '70s. Colin Powell was the only black person who had a credible chance to be elected president (had he run) prior to Obama.
 
MLK may have had a chance by 76 or in the 80s.
 
RJKarl said:
MLK may have had a chance by 76 or in the 80s.
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You think an alleged communist (doesn't even matter if it was true) could have won the presidency during the height of the cold war?
 
King would have only been less popular over time if he had lived.
 
You can't be serious in thinking MLK was a communist.

Bayard Rustin was gay and a communist but not MLK. That's why Rustin left.
 
RJKarl said:
MLK may have had a chance by 76 or in the 80s.
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I'm waiting for you to quote Hubert Humphrey. You know, the part where he says he'll eat the legislation if it is used to justify affirmative action.

King would have been the kinder, gentler version of Al Sharpton. They were not that far apart. Please don't make us laugh by asserting he ever had a chance at being president.

ETA: It's important to understand that King was an economic radical. Whether that was good is beside the point. He said he could not be a capitalist any more than he could be a communist.
 
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Comparing MLK to Al Sharpton is mindboggling in its stupidity.
 
RJKarl said:
It was a great day and a great accomplishment. LBJ changed this country for the positive.

Today, the SC is turning back the hands of time and eroding the right to vote.

State after state has enacted intentionally classist, ageist, racist voter suppression laws.

A major candidate for POTUS, Rand Paul has said he would have opposed the CRA.

For the first time since 1964, many places in our nation and some national leaders are openly and proudly taking us back to sadder days. This is almost unbelievable to someone who lived through those times.
Click to expand...

Richard Epstein's "Forbidden Ground--The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws" was written in the early 1990s.

I'll give you a hint--you'll accuse him of being a racist.
 
"This timely and controversial book presents powerful theoretical and empirical arguments for the repeal of the anti-discrimination laws within the workplace. Richard Epstein demonstrates that these laws set one group against another, impose limits on freedom of choice, unleash bureaucratic excesses, mandate inefficient employment practices, and cause far more invidious discrimination than they prevent. Epstein urges a return to the now-rejected common law principles of individual autonomy that permit all persons to improve their position through trade, contract, and bargain, free of government constraint."

His premise is crap.
 
Typical response from you. Of course support an extremist.
 
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