Certainly it is a different-looking society compared with 1963. A black man is president, for one thing, and young people in minority groups have an array of opportunities that their parents were limited to dreaming about…. “When you look at the places that were typically occupied by people who were not racial minorities, whether it’s the legal profession or the medical profession or major companies, there are now racial minorities in those places,” said Christopher Bracey, a law professor at George Washington University who writes on constitutional law and civil rights. “The changes are tangible. You can see it everywhere. Yes, there are still disparities, but there is no doubt there has been progress.”
One of the beautiful things about milestone anniversaries is the opportunity they provide for reflection and evaluation. Today we have occasion to look back at where we were then and compare it to where we are now. Today’s 50th anniversary of the March on Washington is no different. Given that we’re talking about racism, the fight for equality, and race relations, there are no lack of things we can compare and contrast. The answers you come up with will, I suppose, be largely dependent on your life experience and the color of your skin. On August 28, 1963, I was all of three years old, and I didn’t know Martin Luther King, Jr., from Johnny Unitas. The civil rights movement passed me by in my tiny and extremely White corner of northern Minnesota, but history was happening all around me. It wouldn’t be until years later that I’d understand the impact the era I came of age in would have on America’s future…and how America is a different place because of that struggle.
The March on Washington was about far more than Martin Luther King, Jr. and “I Have a Dream.” There were thousands of stories in Washington, DC, that day, and many of the stories are alive and relevant today. I grew up being taught that the March was about Black America, but while a majority of the crowd had black faces, most American races and ethnicities were on the Mall that day. It was one of the first times that America came together in a common effort to protest discrimination and injustice. The March may (to some) have been an isolated incident, but it highlighted the struggle for equality, and it sent a very clear message that injustice would be fought wherever it was encountered.
It seems clear to me that progress has been made…but much remains to be done. This is especially true when you consider that one political party is working overtime to deny voting rights to minorities. The Voting Rights Act of 1964 is under attack by those on the Right who still view the world as rightfully the purview and property of White Americans. Their view of America is not the America we live in today, though not for a lack of effort on the part of those driven by hatred and fear.
There’s an entire class of Far Right Conservatives dedicated to doing whatever it takes to maintain power and control, even if they have to lie, cheat, steal, and game the system to do it. What they portray as protecting the integrity of the electoral process is a thinly-veiled attempt to suppress the votes of minorities and the poor- two constituencies that traditionally vote Democratic. Keep them from voting, the thinking goes, and White Conservatives will continue to rule. It’s an equation as simple as it is reprehensible…but integrity has never been part of their Machiavellian drive to maintain political power at all costs. In their estimation, democracy is only useful insofar as it can be manipulated to maintain White rule as the “natural order” of things.
It would be easy to look at the assault on voting rights and assume a pessimistic view of race and race relations today. It would also be wrong, because significant progress has been made on many fronts. African-Americans have greater access to education, opportunity, housing, and any number of other aspects of life than they did 50 years ago. Things are better, but are they good? That’s a matter worthy of debate, but it’s clear there’s still a long way to go before we can claim victory. As long as there are those actively working to suppress the rights of minorities, there is work to be done. As long as there are those willing to discriminate on the basis of race, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, and/or any number of human characteristics, we’re not living in a society predicated on equality and equal treatment.
If nothing else, today’s 50th anniversary of the March on Washington should be taken as an opportunity to celebrate the progress we’ve made AND to reflect on the significant work needing to be done. We may be better, but we’re still not good, and I don’t know that we will be in my lifetime. That shouldn’t be taking as meaning we shouldn’t continue working to isolate and marginalize those driven by hatred and fear. We may never achieve full equality, but the struggle to get us there should if nothing else get us closer to that goal.
WE DESERVE BETTER…and there’s much remaining to be done before we get there.
