Equality Matters Looks At Civil Rights Achievements From Integration Of The Military To Marriage Equality
In light of legislation repealing the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, Equality Matters reviews achievements in civil rights laws that were accomplished during the 19 years between racial integration of the military and the Supreme Court decision striking down laws prohibiting interracial marriage. Amid these groundbreaking legal changes, Martin Luther King warned that that there were still challenges to overcome in the fight for equal rights.
Ban On Gays Serving Openly In The Military Comes To An End
The New York Times reported:
The military’s longstanding ban on service by gays and lesbians came to a historic and symbolic end on Wednesday, as President Obama signed legislation repealing ”don’t ask, don’t tell,” the contentious 17-year old Clinton-era law that sought to allow gays to serve under the terms of an uneasy compromise that required them to keep their sexuality a secret. [The New York Times, 12/23/10]
Timeline: Civil Rights Achievements From Racial Integration Of The Military To Marriage Equality
July 26, 1948: President Truman Racially Integrates The Armed Forces By Executive Order. Executive Order 9981 required the military to be racially integrated and to provide equal treatment for servicemen of all races:
WHEREAS it is essential that there be maintained in the armed services of the United States the highest standards of democracy, with equality of treatment and opportunity for all those who serve in our country’s defense:
NOW THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, by the Constitution and the statutes of the United States, and as Commander in Chief of the armed services, it is hereby ordered as follows:
1. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin. This policy shall be put into effect as rapidly as possible, having due regard to the time required to effectuate any necessary changes without impairing efficiency or morale. [Executive Order 9981, 7/26/48, via TrumanLibrary.org]
May 17, 1954: Supreme Court’s Brown V. Board Of Education Decision Rules That Segregation Of The Nation’s Public Schools Violates The U.S. Constitution. In its decision, the court wrote:
We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. [Brown v. Board of Education, 5/17/54, via FindLaw.com]
September 9, 1957: President Eisenhower Signs The Civil Rights Act Of 1957. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first civil rights legislation to pass Congress since the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War. It established the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and strengthened voting rights laws:
PART IV — TO PROVIDE MEANS OF FURTHER SECURING AND PROTECTING THE RIGHT TO VOTE
SEC. 131. Section 2004 of the Revised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 1971), is amended as follows:
[…]
(c) Add, immediately following the present text, four new subsections to read as follows:
“(b) No person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, shall intimidate, threaten, coerce or attempt to intimidate, threaten or coerce any other person for the purpose of interfering with the right of such other person to vote or to vote as he may choose, or of causing such other person to vote for, or not to vote for, any candidate for the office of President, Vice President, Presidential elector, Member of the Senate or member of the House of Representatives, delegates or Commissioners from the Territories or possessions, at any general, special, or primary election held solely or in part for the purpose of selecting or electing any such candidate.
“(c) Whenever any person has engaged or there are reasonable grounds to believe that any person is about to engage in any act or practice which would deprive any other person of any right or privilege secured by subsection (a) or (b), the Attorney General may institute for the United States, Or in the nation of the United States, a civil action or other proper proceeding for preventive relief, including an application for a permanent or temporary injunction, restraining order, or other order. In any proceeding hereunder the United States shall be liable for costs the same as a private person.
“(d) The district courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction of proceedings instituted pursuant to this section and shall exercise the same without regard to whether the party aggrieved shall have exhausted any administrative or other remedies that may be provided by law.
“(e) (14) Any person cited for an alleged contempt under this act shall be allowed to make his full defense by counsel learned in the law; and the court before which he is cited or tried, or some judge thereof, shall immediately, upon his request, assign to him such counsel, not exceeding two, as he may desire, who shall have free access to him at all reasonable hours. He shall be allowed, in his defense to make any proof that he can produce by lawful witnesses, and shall have the like process of the court to compel his witnesses to appear at his trial or hearing as is usually granted to compel witnesses to appear on behalf of the prosecution. If such person shall be found by the court to be financially unable to provide for such counsel, it shall be the duty of the court to provide such counsel. [Civil Rights Act of 1957, 9/9/57, via University of Maryland Law School]
May 6, 1960: President Eisenhower Signs The Civil Rights Act Of 1960. The law empowered federal courts to appoint referees to ensure that voting rights were not denied on the basis of race and other factors:
In any proceeding instituted pursuant to subsection (c) in the event the court finds that any person has been deprived on account of race or color of any right or privilege secured by subsection (a), the court shall upon request of the Attorney General and after each party has been given notice and the opportunity to be heard make a finding whether such deprivation was or is pursuant to a pattern or practice.
[…]
The court may appoint one or more persons who are qualified voters in the judicial district, to be known as voting referees, who shall subscribe to the oath of office required by Revised Statutes, Section 1757; (5 U.S.C. 16) to serve for such period as the court shall determine, to receive such applications and to take evidence and report to the court findings as to whether or not at any election or elections (1) any such applicant is qualified under State law to vote, and (2) he has since the finding by the court heretofore specified been (a) deprived of or denied under color of law the opportunity to register to vote or otherwise to qualify to vote, or (b) found not qualified to vote by any person acting under color of law. [Civil Rights Act of 1960, via Cornell University Law School, as amended by subsequent laws]
January 23, 1964: The States Ratify The 24th Amendment To The Constitution. The 24th Amendment to the Constitution states:
1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. [Amendment 24 to the U.S. Constitution, ratified 1/23/64, via USConstitution.net]
July 2, 1964: President Johnson Signs The Civil Rights Act Of 1964.
- Title II Of The Law Created Outlawed Discrimination In Places of Public Accommodation On The Basis of Race And Other Factors:
SEC. 201. (a) All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, and privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, as defined in this section, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin. [Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title II, via the U.S. House of Representatives]
- Title VII Of The Law Outlawed Discrimination In Employment Practices On The Basis Of Race And Other Factors:
It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer –
(1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; or
(2) to limit, segregate, or classify his employees or applicants for employment in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. [Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII, via the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]
August 6, 1965: President Johnson Signs The Voting Rights Act Of 1965. This law prohibited states from imposing prerequisites or requirements to voting:
SEC. 2. No voting qualifications or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color. [Voting Rights Act of 1965, via the U.S. House of Representatives]
March 24, 1966: The Supreme Court Rules That Poll Taxes For State Elections Violate The Constitution. From the Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections decision:
In a recent searching reexamination of the Equal Protection Clause, we held, as already noted, that “the opportunity for equal participation by all voters in the election of state legislators” is required. We decline to qualify that principle by sustaining this poll tax. Our conclusion, like that, in Reynolds v. Sims, is founded not on what we think governmental policy should be, but on what the Equal Protection Clause requires. [Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, via Cornell University Law School]
June 12, 1967: The Supreme Court Declares That Laws Banning Interracial Marriage Violate The U.S. Constitution. From the Loving v. Virginia decision:
This case presents a constitutional question never addressed by this Court: whether a statutory scheme adopted by the State of Virginia to prevent marriages between persons solely on the basis of racial classifications violates the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. For reasons which seem to us to reflect the central meaning of those constitutional commands, we conclude that these statutes cannot stand consistently with the Fourteenth Amendment. [Supreme Court of the United States, Loving v. Virginia, via Cornell University Law School]
Following Passage Of Civil Rights Act of 1964, Martin Luther King Said Much Work Remained To Be Done
King: “We Still Have A Long, Long Way To Go Before The Dream Of Freedom Is A Reality For The Negro In The United States.” In his Nobel Peace Prize lecture, delivered months after the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. said:
Let me not leave you with a false impression. The problem is far from solved. We still have a long, long way to go before the dream of freedom is a reality for the Negro in the United States. To put it figuratively in biblical language, we have left the dusty soils of Egypt and crossed a Red Sea whose waters had for years been hardened by a long and piercing winter of massive resistance. But before we reach the majestic shores of the Promised Land, there is a frustrating and bewildering wilderness ahead. We must still face prodigious hilltops of opposition and gigantic mountains of resistance. But with patient and firm determination we will press on until every valley of despair is exalted to new peaks of hope, until every mountain of pride and irrationality is made low by the leveling process of humility and compassion; until the rough places of injustice are transformed into a smooth plane of equality of opportunity; and until the crooked places of prejudice are transformed by the straightening process of bright-eyed wisdom.
What the main sections of the civil rights movement in the United States are saying is that the demand for dignity, equality, jobs, and citizenship will not be abandoned or diluted or postponed. If that means resistance and conflict we shall not flinch. We shall not be cowed. We are no longer afraid. [12/11/1964, via NobelPrize.org]
King: Civil Rights Movement Remained “Beleaguered And Committed To Unrelenting Struggle.” From King’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech:
I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.
Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize. [12/10/1964, via NobelPrize.org]
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