The Date - 02/07/1964. The place - The White house. The fact - The Civil Rights Act was signed by Lyndon B. Johnson, was passed into law and segregation became illegal throughout schools and other public places in the USA. And given the outrages that had been going on in the southern states throughout the previous 100 years it was not a moment too soon. In fact although 2nd July was the date the bill passed through the senate, it passed through the House of Representatives on the same day the Vicar came into this world five months earlier.
So the Act brought to end the Jim Crow laws and the Democrats were seen as the party of liberation. Although, of course, it was not as simple as that as the Kennedy / Johnson administration were in many ways merely reacting to the inevitable urge of reform that had been gathering pace since the Montgomery Bus Boycott 10 years earlier. Plus, of course, the Civil Rights Act was just the beginning of a struggle to enforce the law through voter registration schemes and employer education. Only a year later the Los Angeles suburb of Watts was to descend into riots emphasising the problems the US was still to face with Black Civil Rights.
But the Act was passed. An important Act. And Martin Luther King had been proved right when he had forecast in 1963 "How Long? Not Long".
The Untouchables - Free Yourself (mp3)
The Clash - Know Your Rights (mp3)
Buy The Untouchables here and The Clash here
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