July 4th/ Civil Rights Act

July 1, 6:25 PMCharlotte Episcopal ExaminerAngela Boatright-Spencer

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In 1776, freedom was only the stuff of dreams for the first enslaved Africans in America. It was the memory of rising in the morning with the world spread out before you and only the needs of the community limiting your actions. It was the scent, still strong in their memory, of food cooking on the fire, of flowers grown only in the native land, of air that is fresh and clean. It was this memory, passed from generation to generation, that kept the souls of African slaves from being utterly crushed. Crispus Attucks, a black man, was the first person to be killed in the Revolutionary War, but before the battles ended, thousands more joined him in death, having fought on both sides.

"For black people, what mattered most was freedom," the PBS website, "Africans in America" states.  "As the Revolutionary War spread through every region, those in bondage sided with whichever army promised them personal liberty. The British actively recruited slaves belonging to Patriot masters and, consequently, more blacks fought for the Crown. An estimated 100,000 African Americans escaped, died or were killed during the American Revolution.  Had George Washington been less ambivalent, more blacks might have participated on the Patriot side than with the Loyalists. When he took command of the Continental Army in 1775, Washington barred the further recruitment of black soldiers, despite the fact that they had fought side by side with their white counterparts at the battles of Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill."

Freedom in the hearts, souls and bodies of the descendents of the slaves came in July, 1964. Emancipation had ended slavery  a century earlier, but the right to work anywhere, sit anywhere, drink water anywhere conferred in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave African-Americans actual freedom.  The right to vote – the ultimate statement of one’s status as a citizen with a voice – made African-Americans real participants in democracy. Baby boomers were in their early teens then; those same eyes have now seen the country move from segregation and the KKK, to integration and policemen with dogs, to an African-American President saluting the flag of his country. It has been quite a ride. Imagine being a Black child in those days, praying to a picture of Jesus that looks very much like the protestors spitting or shouting at students who look just like you. What do you imagine it does to a person who is told that the God of love looks like those who hate you? Thankfully, we have since come to understand how Eurocentricity influenced conceptualizations of Christ.

The country has changed; perhaps we are coming closer to meeting the ideals of the forefathers: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all. This week’s Supreme Court ruling in favor of White firefighters whose promotions were set aside to avoid a disparate impact suit by their Black counterparts is an example of the change. After years of affirmative action programs opening the doors of offices and schools that ordinarily would have been shut – and African American students and professionals proving they had the smarts to stay on the inside, graduate and flourish – we’re at a point where we can consider whether or not discrimination has taken place on the other side of the fence. But this case is not like the Bakke  protest of Affirmative Action back in the 1970s, when a white student claimed he had been unfairly blocked from admission to college because of his race. The Supreme Court ruling has less to say about discrimination per se than about process. The point in this ruling was that unless there is strong evidence that an employment test is flawed and prejudicial, its results can stand. It didn’t address whether New Haven, the municipality involved, could have selected different methods of testing firefighters’ abilities, such as simulated situations rather than written tests relying on memorization, or whether other races might have fared better if such tests had been used.

The spirit of freedom invoked in the Revolutionary War came to all the Americans who toiled and died building this wonderful nation on this anniversary.  May the spirit of compassion and justice that brought the Civil Rights Act into being continue to guide us in our American journey together. 

Transcript of Civil Rights Act (1964)  [excerpt]
An Act

To enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States to provide injunctive relief against discrimination in public accommodations, to authorize the Attorney General to institute suits to protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights, to prevent discrimination in federally assisted programs, to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Civil Rights Act of 1964".