Forty-nine years is not that long ago. My mom will turn 63 this month, which means that for the first 14 years of her life, she lived in a world where she couldn't sit at a lunch counter or go to school with white children. She couldn't sleep in most hotels, go into amusement parks or borrow books from public libraries. Do you ever wonder why when you see pictures of fun places and things from pre-1964 America that you never see people of color unless they are in staff uniforms? Because they weren't allowed into these places. Things we take for granted now were foreign to Black people in this country at this time.
Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education (1954) sent a message that the United States of America was no longer a place where "separate, but equal" was an acceptable social policy. But it wasn't until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it was officially illegal to ban people of color from "places of public accommodation." However, something people often forget is that the CRA also banned employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Women have, by far, been the largest beneficiaries of the CRA.
So let us not forget that discrimination and prejudice touch ALL of us and when they are allowed to flourish, they destroy ALL of us. Just because they're not looking at you this time, doesn't mean it's OK. Those who fail to remember history are destined to repeat it.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/07/02/2245221/49-years-ago-today-america-banned-whites-only-lunch-counters/?mobile=nc
No comments:
Post a Comment