Salon.com > the civil rights act of 1964

Rand Paul tries to outrun history at Howard

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:50:00 +0000

Give Rand Paul some credit for attempting to do what several decades of elections have shown is a tall order: Get African-Americans to vote Republican. But in order to make his point today at Howard University, he asked the crowd to not only look past his own brief opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but to willfully ignore the fact that the law fundamentally remade American political parties to the point that they bear little resemblance to their 1950s versions.

In a jam-packed auditorium at the historically black college in Washington, D.C., Paul gave the hard sell, arguing that the Republican message of smaller government, school choice and individual freedom should appeal to minorities who have been victims of state-sponsored oppression, crumbling schools and general subjugation.

But most of his speech was a history lesson, as he spent the first 20 minutes insisting that Democrats, and not Republicans, are responsible for every ill that has befallen blacks in the United States, from the preservation of slavery to Jim Crow. "The story of emancipation, voting rights and citizenship, from Fredrick Douglass until the modern civil rights era, is in fact the history of the Republican Party,” Paul said. "The horrible Jim Crow in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s was all Democrats."

Rand Paul to speak at black university

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:06:00 +0000

Republican Sen. Rand Paul will make a pitch to minority voters this week at Howard University, the historically black college in Washington, D.C. The potential 2016 hopeful's message Wednesday will focus on inclusion, according to a press release from the school:

Sen. Paul’s speech will focus on the importance of outreach to younger voters, as well as minority groups. He will also discuss the history of the African-American community’s roots in the Republican Party and current issues, such as school choice and civil liberties

It will be interesting to see what the audience at the school, which is still overwhelmingly African-American, makes of the speech from a senator who once said he didn't support the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on the grounds that it impinged on business owners' rights (he later walked back the remark).

Jobs report: The slow, uneven progress of equal opportunity

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:57:00 +0000

How far have we come since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed job discrimination on the basis of race and sex? Not nearly far enough, says a new book analyzing changing workplaces from 1964 to 2005.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission opened its private-sector employer reports to sociologists Kevin Stainback and Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, who used the data in their book “Documenting Desegregation," a sweeping look at the successes -- and considerable failures -- of the landmark legislation.

The authors found that while the Civil Rights Act of 1964 began to disrupt a system of obstacles for both women and African-Americans, it didn't offer practical ways to renegotiate institutional practices in the workplace. Instead, it relied (and continues to rely) heavily on lawsuits based on especially egregious cases of discrimination. As a result, progress has been uneven and often stalled altogether.

As reported by economics professor Nancy Folbre for the New York Times: