Today we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. We take this time to honor a great man. His legacy is the Civil Rights Movement which culminated into the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the 1968 Fair Housing Act. Let’s take a moment today to review what we are celebrating.
The 1964 Civil Rights Act ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. The 1965 Voting Rights Act eliminated literacy tests, poll tax, and other subjective voter tests that were widely responsible for the disfranchisement of African Americans in the Southern States and provided Federal oversight of voter registration in states and individual voting districts where such discriminatory tests were used. The 1968 Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, and national origin.
These laws are why we celebrate him. These and his strength of character, his unwavering belief in the non-violent method of civil disobedience and protest, his fervent belief in people, and his perseverance. He is revered now but this was not the case then. He was hated by a large portion of the country and even some Black Americans thought that he would just cause more trouble for them than it was worth, but he persisted. I think it was his belief in people that was the catalyst of the movement. It gave him confidence, knowing that if he could show the world what was going on in the south then he could gain the support needed to make laws. He was right. The laws were passed, and he won his battle.
We all won. In addition to Black Americans, Women, Hispanics, Asians, LGBTQIA+, to name a few, are communities that were all helped by the Civil Rights Act. “On the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin” covers us all but there are those who are using those words to gut the items of Civil Rights Act. For example, In July of 2023, thirteen Republican Attorneys General sent a letter, warning Fortune 100 CEOs against taking race into consideration as part of their employment and contracting practices. A curious section of the letter states, “every racial preference necessarily imposes an equivalent harm on individuals outside of the preferred racial groups, solely on the basis of their skin color. It is not even theoretically possible to ‘help’ a certain racial group without causing harm to members of other racial groups”.
This was right after the U.S. Supreme Court in the case against Harvard and UNC, effectively ended race-conscious admission programs at colleges and universities across the country. Ironically, and fantastically the opposition is using the Civil Rights Act, that was created to help a group of people that was discriminated against because of their race, to say raced-based initiatives are wrong because they are discriminatory. Wanting everyone to ignore the fact that the Civil Rights Act is a race-based and corrective law. It cannot be examined in a vacuum but only through a history of denial and injustice against a group of people. This was not a criminal case but a civil one. Which allows corrective procedures against the perpetrators to make the disenfranchised whole. This is the current battle.
This same battle has been fought since those 20 Africans were brought in on the ship to Jamestown in 1619. Frederick Douglass ushered in the first major win when the Civil War ushered in the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. In 1865 the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, in 1868 the 14th Amendment gave citizenship to all people born in the US, and in 1870 the 15th Amendment gave Black Americans the right to vote. These also are laws that were made for Black Americans but benefitted everyone. Immediately after, during the reconstruction period, was one of the most productive 10 years in African American history. We took advantage of those rights afforded to us. We voted and won positions in politics. We created successful businesses, starting the beginnings of generational wealth. We opened and attended universities. We created entire towns and owned land and property. But, as in any war, every battle won leads to the next battle. The Republican party under pressure to win the 1876 election removed the troops from the south which gave way to the southern states assaulting every element of the new laws. Slavery was replaced with share cropping and profit based incarceration. The era of Jim Crow was ushered in, illegally denying Black Americans all the rights that these laws had just provided.
Fast-forward to the present and as stated above, we are on the front lines of our next major battle. Voting Rights – On June 25, 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court overturned part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder. This and the unfounded accusations that there was voting fraud in the 2020 presidential election, has resulted in it being more difficult to vote in many states than it was two years ago. That’s especially true for lower-income Americans and people with disabilities. The new restrictions target methods of voting used disproportionately by people of color. In some states it brings back methods popular during Jim Crow. Housing – In May of 2018 one of the key provisions of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH), a provision made to strengthen the Fair Housing Act during the Obama administration, was weakened when all implementation of the AFFH rule was indefinitely suspended by HUD, the department of housing and urban development. President Joe Bidens administration is attempting to correct this however by proposing $16 billion for the Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit, which would result in more than 400,000 homes built or rehabilitated, creating a pathway for more families to buy a home and start building wealth. Education – In June of 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively ended race-conscious admission programs at colleges and universities across the country. As stated above. It invalidated admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. It ended the ability of colleges and universities — public and private — to do what most say is still needed: to consider race as one of many factors in deciding which of the qualified applicants is to be admitted. Employment – Soon after, in July of 2023, thirteen Republican Attorneys General sent a letter warning Fortune 100 CEOs against taking race into consideration as part of their employment and contracting practices. See this link for further information, https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/attorneygeneral/documents/pr/2023/pr23-27-letter.pdf History – Additionally, there is a dangerous campaign to ban studies of Black history and culture. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and public officials in several other states have essentially banned the teaching of Black history and African American studies — subjects they mistakenly label as critical race theory (CRT). Public officials in 23 states have either specifically banned CRT or are in the process of doing so, banning them is robbing all students of vital history and knowledge of how the nation got to be what it is today.
Voting rights, housing, education, employment, and basic freedom, all elements of American citizenship that were fought for and won for Black Americans several times over. But as history has shown us, it is not enough to win these rights but there is a continual fight to keep them. We are celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. today. We are celebrating the man but most of all his legacy. Is that enough? If we allow those that are determined to erase all that he died for, will there be anything left to celebrate? I look at my kids and the current generation and I have hope that the answer is yes. Amid all that we are fighting for, we have a more thoughtful generation today. They are more concerned about the planet and humanity. When they are running things, I have hope for a brighter day. In the meantime, there are things that we can do to ensure that Martin’s legacy continues. Community service, allyship and participation in our democratic process. All these things are required to realize Martin’s dream.
https://hbr.org/2022/11/7-ways-to-practice-active-allyship
https://www.thepolicycircle.org/brief/whats-whys-civic-engagement
Edward Odom
