“By 1968, President Lyndon Johnson — a man brought into office by an assassin’s bullet — had already convinced Congress to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act the following year,” states a Huffington Post editorial today.
“The bills put the full force of federal law behind the rights of black and other disenfranchised Americans to vote and use a wide variety of public facilities. But one other measure that Johnson and many civil rights activists saw as essential
— The Fair Housing Act — had languished in Congress for three years. In April of that year, Congress finally passed the bill. It was just days after another assassin’s bullet sliced through Martin Luther King Jr.’s neck and jaw, killing the civil rights leader in Memphis.
“Nearly 45 years later, the desire to memorialize King and his nonviolent struggle for a broad range of civil, labor and economic rights, has changed. Continue reading “Civil rights and wrongs”