There is no doubt that America has come a long way
since the civil rights era. But while the indignities of segregated public
accommodations have largely disappeared, another significant theme of the march
remains highly relevant half a century later: the struggle for economic
opportunity and equality. It was perhaps due to the march and the great success
of the larger civil rights movement that opposition to this sort of equality
was immediate, persists to this day, and is reflected in all three branches of
the federal government.
The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
was based on 10 concrete demands, including comprehensive civil rights
legislation, desegregation of public schools, voting rights, job training and
dignified work, and an increased minimum wage. The potential to expand economic
opportunity and lift African Americans, other Americans of color, and white
Americans out of poverty and low-income status was clear—not just through
direct tools such as wages and work but also through indirect avenues such as
improved educational opportunities and the opportunity to vote for political
candidates who work to advance economic justice.
Celebrating and commemorating genuine progress
This month’s anniversary raises the question: “Was
the march a success?” In so many ways, the answer is “yes.”
The combined efforts of the 1963 marchers,
policymakers in Congress, the office of the presidency, and researchers such as
Michael Harrington who raised awareness about poverty among Americans of all
races resulted in an unprecedented succession of legislative victories. New
laws—including the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Economic Opportunity Act of
1964, which helped wage the War on Poverty; the Voting Rights Act of 1965; and
the Civil Rights Act of 1968, or the Fair Housing Act—largely reflected the
marchers’ demands and advanced the causes of economic and social justice.
These efforts rapidly improved conditions for
African Americans in the United States. Between 1959 and 1979 black poverty
rates dropped significantly, from 55 percent to 31 percent, and African
Americans saw gains in education, employment, and democratic participation.
Over the same time period, the number of black children attending
majority-minority schools dropped from 77 percent to 63 percent, the annual
wage gap between blacks and whites decreased from $8,901 to $7,285 in 2011
dollars, and black voter registration increased by nearly 20 points in the
former Confederate states. Other groups benefited as well, including women,
poor whites, other communities of color, people with disabilities, and senior
citizens. They were either directly included in the civil rights and
anti-poverty legislation that passed from 1964 to 1968 or benefited from
subsequent laws patterned after that legislation—for example, Title IX, which
prohibited sex discrimination in education; the Americans with Disabilities
Act; and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
But something even larger came out of the march and
the civil rights movement. They became the ultimate example of some important
concepts, such as the power of peaceful social movements to bring about
significant societal change, the ability of Congress and the president to work
together to solve national problems, and the value to America of structures
that protect minorities from injustice, even if that injustice is at the hands
of the majority.
This legacy informs our nation 50 years later, as
concerned Americans may feel discouraged about the ways in which government
cuts are setting back efforts to aid the poor; partisan divides are limiting
the ability of Congress and the president to solve national problems such as
elevated unemployment and the need for jobs; and various groups, such as
immigrant DREAMers, black youth in the wake of the Trayvon Martin decision, and
Occupy Movement protesters, continue to strive for economic and social equality
using strategies reminiscent of the 1960s.
The path to regression
So we must also face the bad news: Efforts to stop
progress have always existed, and they persist to this day. When too many
people remain indifferent, progress stagnates or turns to regression.
Attacks in reaction to the march found early
expression when conservatives who opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 rallied
around the presidential campaign of former Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-AZ). In
Awakening from the Dream, Lee Cokorinos and Alfred Ross outline the anti-civil
rights movement from that point forward. After his landslide loss to President
Lyndon B. Johnson, the focus of Sen. Goldwater’s supporters shifted to building
national and regional think tanks such as The Heritage Foundation and the
Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. The Reagan administration also
appointed many of Sen. Goldwater’s supporters to positions in federal
administrative agencies and on the federal bench. Efforts persisted into the
1990s and 2000s, during which time legal and advocacy organizations such as The
Federalist Society grew and developed, creating legal arguments to defeat the
cause of social justice in the courts and a network of conservative lawyers to
fulfill the mission. Media outlets including Fox News also emerged and began to
demonstrate their influence.
The courts
It is clear that the courts matter to America’s
post-march story. On that August day in 1963, people demanded voting rights;
soon after, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed. By the year 2012, for the
first time in our nation’s history, blacks voted at a higher rate than whites.
But in 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County
v. Holder, ending the practice of requiring states with a history of voting
discrimination to get prior Justice Department approval before changing their
voting practices.
The marchers also demanded school integration. But
after significant initial progress—especially in the southern states—the U.S.
Supreme Court struck substantial blows to their cause with a pair of 1970s
cases—Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717 (1974), and San Antonio Independent
School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1 (1973)—that significantly limited the
effectiveness of mandatory school-desegregation plans and declared that
education is not a fundamental right. More recently, the Court even placed
limitations on the ability of school districts to voluntarily create
school-integration plans. Many districts have historically been required to
integrate via court order after findings of discrimination.
Over the years other decisions have made it more
difficult for people to take their claims of violations of the Civil Rights Act
of 1964 to court. New barriers to achieving the 1963 marchers’ dreams
definitely exist.
Congress
Consider what’s happened—or hasn’t happened—in
Congress. The 1963 marchers demanded job training and decent work. By 1978
Congress’s spending in this area reached a high of $38.6 billion in 2013
dollars. As the nation entered the Great Recession in 2007, however, that
number had tanked to $8 billion in 2013 dollars. After several failed attempts,
Congress hasn’t completed a reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act of
1998, the nation’s largest job-training program, in 15 years. Some important
methods that would improve services, such as shifting from an emphasis on
short-term placements to one focused on developing skilled workers through
education and training, have not been incorporated into the legislation.
The marchers also demanded an increase in the
minimum wage. Over the years Congress has given America’s workers a few raises,
but the real value of the minimum wage is now lower than it was in 1964 and can
still leave a full-time worker with children below the poverty line. And as the
nation’s fast-food workers join together to fight for decent wages, they are
being ridiculed by conservatives.
Congress can also have an impact on the courts.
Various members of Congress have introduced legislation that would rectify the
damage done by the courts, including the Civil Rights Act of 2008. Notably, the
Supreme Court’s voting-rights decision suggests that it is now Congress’s role
to draft new legislation. Congress must also address partisan rancor over
confirming judicial nominees. Not only do conservative efforts to load the
bench with like-minded judges put the future of social justice at risk, but
they also put all justice at risk. As the number of judicial vacancies grows to
emergency levels, there are not enough judges to hear the cases piling up on
dockets across the country.
What’s next
Moving forward, believers in economic and racial
justice should take inspiration from the March on Washington and its reverberation,
as this period is the best possible testament to the power of mass movement to
bring about change. It is instructive for those seeking to generate the types
of progress and government action needed—passing legislation that reshapes and
improves upon existing structures, securing adequate funding for relevant
services, improving the effectiveness of the judicial-confirmation process, and
restoring gains that have been eroded by the courts.
About the authors: Joy Moses is a Senior Policy
Analyst with the Poverty and Prosperity program at the Center for American Progress. Zach Murray was a Congressional Hunger Fellow at the Center.
This article was published by the Center for
American Progress.
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