NOVEMBER 15, 2024 CONTINUED CIVIL RIGHTS from page 8 In remembrance of Emmett Till, the “March on Washington” was scheduled for August 28, 1963 in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The National Park Service estimated that the crowd was over 250,000. There were many speakers including the late John Lewis, a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I HAVE A DREAM” speech. It was a profound and powerful speech. Dr. King was inspired by the poem of Langston Hughes titled, “Harlem: What Happens to a Dream Deferred?” Some historians had noted that Dr. King was urged by his favorite gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson, to say something about the dreams. He did! Dr. King’s oratory was also heard inside the White House and offices of the Nobel Prize Committee. King and his allies had made a persuasive case for civil rights in America. A few days after the March, President John F. Kennedy invited Dr. King and other Civil Rights leaders to the White House. Historians have said that when President Kennedy greeted the leaders, he jokingly said, “I have a dream!” At the White House, the host and guests discussed the 1963 Civil Rights Bill which President Kennedy sent to Congress for deliberation and passage. Sadly, in November 1963, Kennedy traveled to Dallas where he was killed by an assassin's bullet. The tragedy was very painful for the nation. Men, women and children wept openly on street corners, and in classrooms, churches, restaurants and workplaces. President Kennedy’s Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was, later in the day, sworn in as president. The nation was in mourning and tributes to the young leader, now dead, were pouring in. The new president made a passionate plea to Congress to pass Kennedy’s 1963 Civil Rights Act as one way to honor his legacy. In February 1964, the House passed it. The Senate passed the bill in June and President L.B. Johnson signed it into law on July 2, 1964. This law called for non-discrimination on the basis of race, age, gender, ethnicity and national origin. It has been amended a few times to include disability, sexual orientation and other minority identities. The 1964 Civil Rights Act created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate complaints about workplace discrimination, bias and harassment. There was a lot of resistance after the President Lyndon B. Johnson shaking the hand of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the southern states, there was rampant discrimination in hospital facilities, public education, restaurants, movie theaters and workplaces. In order to speed up compliance with the civil rights law, President L.B. Johnson signed Executive Order 11246 – The Affirmative Action Policy of 1965. The Federal government would not give funding to organizations noncompliant with the law against discrimination. Non-discrimination in voting was a key provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. However, southern Blacks were not given the freedom and opportunity to cast their votes. The march from Selma to Mongomery across the Pettus bridge was a march for voting rights enforcement and for freedom to vote. The Bloody Sunday in March 1965 showed peaceful protesters being beaten up with batons and threatened with guns by Sheriff deputies. The news media all over the world showed the brutality and injustice experienced by peaceful marchers. The images were stunning. The use of fire hoses to spray strong jets of water on young school children who were protesting, knocking them down, dealt a negative blow to the nation’s image abroad, and sickened many at home. Congress hurried and passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act, also known as the Civil Rights Act of 1965. President L. B. Johnson signed it into law and voiced a line from the old Negro Spiritual, “We shall overcome … some day.” Discrimination continued, especially in housing and residential neighborhoods. Dr. King joined local protesters in cities such as Chicago to call attention to redlining, disinvestment patterns and unfair discrimination in housing purchase and renting. In 1968, Congress was considering a non-discrimination fair housing bill which was sent by the Johnson administration. In March 1968, President Johnson received the reports from the Governor Otto Kerner Commission. After the 1967 Detroit Riot, the commission was created to answer three key questions. What happened? Why did it happen? What can we do to make sure it does not happen again? On April 4, 1968, another national tragedy shocked America and the world. Civil Rights leader and the November 1964 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize Dr. King was shot and killed in front of Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Once again, GROUNDCOVER NEWS 11 President Johnson urged Congress to pass the Fair Housing Act / Civil Rights Act of 1968. It was passed quickly in April and he signed it into law. Conclusion Many journalists continue to say that the nation has come a long way. America in the 21st century is much better than the 20th century and the centuries before. The young people of today will be leaders of our tomorrow. They have demonstrated a sense of moral rectitude and a sense of racial justice during the 2020 brutal tragedy on the streets of Minneapolis. Many people in the mass media have said that there should be an intergenerational dialogue about the good chapters and the sad chapters of our history. It would not be prudent to point the blame on the young folks for the sins of the remote past. In their highly regarded book titled, “Long Memory,” Mary Frances Berry of the University of Pennsylvania and John Blasingame of Yale emphasized the correction of distortions in our history books and our civic literature. Let the conversations begin in classrooms, community centers, coffee shops, restaurants, ice cream parlors, farmers markets and outside the libraries. I do realize the experience of one individual may be different from another individual. We must be careful about the error of generalization. This is a reminder from Maya Angelou’s poem, “Still I Rise." You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I’ll rise. ... You may shoot me down with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I’ll rise. PEER from page 7 related tasks, housing was an area of weakness. Locally, the workflow available to help guide homeless or housing insecure individuals is published by the OCED, and only outlines the initial steps in the Housing Access of Washtenaw County process. Currently, the County lacks any type of resource that helps explain the flow of different resource options available to anyone interested in housing support. A recent discussion with OCED also revealed the need to improve the workflow for supporting people at all stages of their housing journey, which should address issues related to housing safety — such as sanitation, mold and repairs — as well as access to legal resources. For example, many people become unhoused because they lack legal representation or an understanding of their rights. On the other side, once people access housing — through public or private means — they are often cut off from the support network that assisted them up until that point. The concept of creating specialized programming utilizing peer workers brings both challenges and opportunities: at this time Canada, Australia, and the European Federation of National Organizations working with the homeless, have all published tools for applying peer support with the homeless and housing insecure. Peer curricula have historically been open to adapting peer training to the needs of the population served. The challenge, it appears, is that peer programs that prioritize housing require financial support mechanisms, which are lacking in the current system, as most peer programming is rooted in funding streams associated with substance abuse, mental health, or another qualifying medical diagnosis rather than actual homelessness. Recent literature published about peer programs in the United States suggests there is potential to explore future opportunities based on need and strengthened through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). At this time, efforts are underway through OCED to utilize Circling Back team members in this winter’s Point In Time (PIT) count to make it more accurate. The PIT count is funded by HUD to gauge homelessness in the United States, and helps guide how housing resources are disbursed. Also, to better serve the needs of its homeless and the housing unstable population, Circling Back hopes to improve towards a more trauma-conscious approach to the housing peer workforce, better equipped to improve quality of life for everyone.
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