The most important change in the 1960s must be the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement started in the early 1940s; however, its important milestone was established in the 1960s. Martin Luther King was one of the major civil rights leaders in the period of 1960s. On August 23, 1963, Martin Luther King addressed a famous speech called “I Have a Dream” which aroused all attentions from the public and the government toward civil rights. “I have a dream that one day [in]this nation… all men are created equal…I have a dream that my children will one day … not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character…”
Martin Luther King was getting closer to his dream after his speech. In July 2, 1964, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, which prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin in school, employment, institutions……etc. The Civil Rights Act was significant in the 1960s because it overruled the Jim Crow laws, which supported “separate but equal ” status for black Americans since 1876, and set up new equal standards that influence the life of Americans all along.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4AItMg70kg
The pictures below show the difference before and after the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Although the Civil Right Act enforces people from discriminating against people in colors, there is still inequalities of race. From Sociology class, I have learned that Bertand and Mullainathan, sociologists, sent 5,000 fake resumes to 1,300 employers. Half of the resumes contained names selected from a list of 20 “stereotypically black names”, and other half had names from a list of “stereotypically white names.” The results: applicants with white names averaged 1 callback for every 10 resumes, while African-American names on resumers resulted in 1 callback for every 15 resumes.
What do you think? The researchers concluded that “racial discrimination is still a prominent feature of labor market.”
I could not imagine how it felt to be hated because of the color of your skin. But what is still sad that we still have that hate still in this world today. Thank God that we have this bill, because those of them that hate, can’t stop anyone from reaching their goals anymore. Our lives are in our hands and that is the greatest gift anyone can possess. His dream came true….