By: Marc H. Morial
President and CEO
National Urban League
The year 2004 is one full of great historical echoes for African Americans and all Americans who value the expansion within these shores of liberty and justice for all.
Among other things, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, outlawing racial segregation in the public schools, and the 40th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It also would have been the 75th year in the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.
This month's (Feb 2004) Black History celebrations have resounded with old and new perspectives about the individuals and events that played crucial roles in making the United States of the 1960s a democracy not just rhetorically but in fact.
But the significance of the current celebrations, and those on the horizon, isn't merely historical. They shouldn't be considered simply remembrances of things past.
Instead, they should remind us that the securing of civil rights for all Americans is a job not yet finished, and that rights won in the past can be later destroyed or so weakened as to be, realistically, meaningless.
African Americans know this well: they struggled for a century after emancipation from slavery against nearly the whole of White America to bring to life the "inalienable rights"they were supposed to have as Americans. In so doing, they led the United States to become, finally, a democracy not just rhetorically but in fact.
That is why, four decades later, the vision of the American Dream Martin Luther King, Jr. articulated at the 1963 March on Washington still retains its transcendent power: It called America to develop the best of its potential.
That understanding of the past we celebrate this month and this year illuminates the broader importance of new legislation—Fairness: The Civil Rights Act of 2004—introduced in the Congress last week.
Sponsored principally by Ted Kennedy in the Senate, and Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, along with more than 68 other representatives in the House, the legislation would fortify a number of rights affecting a broad spectrum of Americans.
The bill is supported by a wide variety of civil rights, labor and other organizations, including the National urban League. It would protect workers from discrimination in agencies that receive federal funds, defend students from harassment in schools, bolster civil rights and wage protections for state employees, and prevents employers from forcing workers to give up their right to a day in court.
The legislation also ensures that undocumented workers can legally challenge unfair labor practices imposed on them, and provides victims of discrimination by age, sex, disability or religion the same solutions as victims of racial discrimination.
One would be right in believing that these civil rights protections had already been mandated by various Congressional acts or provisions of acts, including some that stretch back to provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act itself.
But a series of decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court during the past decade have undermined the ability of victims of these kinds of discrimination to find redress in he courts. The Fairness Act bill intends to remedy what both Senator Kennedy and Representative Lewis called "restrictive court rulings"that jeopardize "decades of progress toward achieving equal justice for all."
Speaking recently at a Washington press conference called to discuss the legislation, Senator Kennedy, referring to its provisions, said, "Many of the details may seem technical, but the principles they will carry out are an essential part of our commitment to make Dr. King's dream a reality for everyone in every community in our country.
He added, "To those who say now is not the time to seek this new progress, "we reply, as Dr. King himself replied, now is always the time for civil rights."
Representative Lewis, a former leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the most activist of all the civil rights groups, and a speaker at the March on Washington, remarked that "veterans of the Civil Rights Movement know that … the struggle for civil rights is beyond one bill, one vote, or one judicial decision. It's beyond one presidential term, or act of Congress. We all must do our part [to help] write the story of our nation's efforts to … ensure that all Americans are free to pursue their dreams."
Thus, against the backdrop court decisions that have eroded fundamental rights, and a harsh economic environment which has put enormous pressure on workers to stay at their jobs, no matter what the cost, it's more important than ever to make sure the rights we so proudly hail rhetorically continue to exist in real life.
As Senator Kennedy said, "civil rights is still America's unfinished business."
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