Civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr. (3rd from right in the front row) and John Lewis (4th from left in the front row), speak with reporters after meeting with President John F. Kennedy following the March on Washington in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. Library of Congress/Warren K. Leffler/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo.
Jul 2, 2024 Story by: Editor
Courtland Cox was just 22 years old when he stood alongside civil rights icons Bayard Rustin and John Lewis at the March on Washington in 1963, accompanied by thousands of Black Americans, including students he had organized to travel by charter buses from the South. This pivotal march is credited with turning the tide for social rights in the United States, leading to the Civil Rights Act, signed into law 60 years ago today.
At that time, many Black Americans, despite being generations removed from slavery, still faced threats of violence and “Jim Crow” laws that barred them from voting and living in certain neighborhoods. Activists of the 1950s and 1960s responded with a series of nonviolent demonstrations, including the March on Washington led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. These events brought national attention to the struggles of Black citizens and set the stage for landmark legislation like the Civil Rights Act, signed on July 2, 1964, by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Now 83, Cox believes the fight for civil rights remains as urgent as ever. “We have an ongoing battle that’s been going on for 80 years,” he said.
Decades after the bill’s passage, leading civil rights figures and organizations assert that its full promise remains unfulfilled, pointing to recent setbacks. They highlight a series of court rulings that have impacted Black Americans, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions over the past 11 years that have weakened key parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, overturned Roe v. Wade, and made it more challenging to prove racial discrimination in election administration.
Voters are also frustrated by inflation and other economic issues, alongside a perceived lack of progress on racial justice priorities. “We are treading on very dangerous waters,” warned Martin Luther King III, son of the slain civil rights leader. “Our task is to get the majority of people to engage. Dad used to say, ‘We must learn non-violence or we may face non-existence.’ We are headed in the wrong direction and we have to find ways to pull those people out to come out on Election Day.”
While the anniversary of the Civil Rights Act is a cause for celebration, there is a persistent feeling that historic legislative victories for Black civil rights are under threat. “The past eight years have taught us that all of the things that we thought were codified in law and sacred, and that they were part of this kind of historical narrative about justice – all of those things can be undone,” noted Leah Wright Rigueur, a history professor at Johns Hopkins University.
Black Americans overwhelmingly supported Biden in the 2020 election, voting 9-to-1 in his favor. However, Black voter support for Biden has waned due to disillusionment over slow progress on key issues. Advocates hope to galvanize Black Americans to vote in the upcoming November election between Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Despite challenges, Cox celebrates the substantial political influence Black Americans have gained since the civil rights movement. He was inspired to join the movement at 19 after the murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy killed in Mississippi by two white men who were later acquitted. Cox remains active, working with the NAACP to recruit 300,000 volunteers for get-out-the-vote efforts targeting Black communities.
The National Urban League, another leading civil rights organization, is combating what it sees as racially targeted voter suppression tactics such as strict voter ID laws, polling place closures in predominantly Black neighborhoods, early voting restrictions, and voter roll purges. “We sometimes take democracy for granted because we never lived without it, so we become detached from this hard reality,” said National Urban League CEO Marc Morial.
The next generation of political leaders and advocates aim to build on the lessons of their predecessors. Blaise Adams, a recent graduate of Tougaloo College—a key institution in the civil rights movement—emphasizes the importance of collective action. “One of the biggest things that we’ve learned from that era is the power of the collective voice,” said Adams, 34, and former student government president at Tougaloo. “Our ancestors fought for this right. People were killed in the streets, attacked and everything like that, for the ability for us to simply go and vote.” Source: Reuters
