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In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was signed into law. In 1964 my parents were ages ten and twelve. I was not even a dream to them I am sure! In some ways it seems long ago but in reality it was only forty-five years ago. This was only forty-five years ago. Less than a half a century ago there was a large part of the population that believed blacks and whites should not share bathrooms, water fountains or restaurants.
Introduced by President Kennedy and singed by President Johnson, the 1964 passage is thought to have been helped pass because of the 1963 March On Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have A Dream Speech.
What astounds me is the voting records. In the Senate the vote was 73-27 in favor for it passing. In the House it was 289-126 in favor. Can you imagine in 2009 having 153 elected officials not voting for the Civil Rights Act?
Of course, TV and movies and books have shown me a glimpse of this era and what is was like, but I will never fully understand what it must have been like to live in this time period. A time when two of my daughters would not have been able to eat dinner with me out, a time when I could not have taken them into the restrooms with me. A time actually when I most likely never would have had the opportunity to parent my beautiful brown baby girls.
It is mind blowing to try and realize the reality that once was, but think about it we must as we have got to appreciate how far human rights have come while we still struggle to truly make it an equal world. I am grateful to everyone who was and is apart of making the world a better, fair place to raise my kids.
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