The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with renewed commitments to prosecute hate crimes and threats of violence and protect the voting rights of Black Americans.
The Civil Rights Act, signed into law by former President Johnson on July 2, 1964, made discrimination on the basis of race, sex, national origin, and religion illegal.
“This legislation transformed our country,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division took time Tuesday to honor those who helped pass the bill, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers.
“Throughout 1963, Dr. King skillfully increased pressure for reform. In April, after being jailed for demonstrating in Birmingham, he penned his ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail,’ calling on Americans to ‘let justice flow like waters,'” Clark said.
“Despite unimaginable violence — the assassination of Medgar Evers, the murders of the Freedom Riders, the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church and countless other attacks that proved in blood the veracity of the daily death threats against Dr. King and others — their defenders fought back. And as we know, they ultimately prevailed,” she added.
But Justice Department officials said Tuesday that the law remains necessary because 60 years later, hatred continues to spread across the country.
“More than half a century has passed, but many of the challenges that necessitated the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 remain relevant today,” Garland said. “Today, it is not just individual civil rights that are under attack. There are also widespread attacks on the laws that guarantee those rights. And there has been an alarming increase in attacks on the institutions and people charged with enforcing those laws.”
Garland denounced attacks on voting rights that disproportionately affect Black voters.
“Across the country, we are seeing a growing number of legislative initiatives that make it harder for voters to cast their ballots, have their votes counted, and elect the representatives they want. Some have even proposed giving state legislatures the power to ignore the voters’ own choices,” he said.
“Efforts to undermine voting rights are growing and we are seeing an alarming increase in threats of violence against the citizens who rely on fair administration of their votes – state and county elected officials, career civil servants and even volunteer poll workers.”
This is not the way democracy works, he said.
Garland also spoke about the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man killed by three white men in Georgia, the death of Breonna Taylor and the 2020 killing of George Floyd.
“We will never stop working to protect civil rights and our democracy,” Garland said.
Since 2021, the Justice Department has charged more than 120 defendants in more than 110 cases with hate crimes, including the men who killed Arbery and the Club Q shooter.
“The 1964 law laid the foundation for these efforts,” Clark said.
“This legislation is a testament to the intelligence, tenacity and courage of the heroes who fought, bled and died to achieve it. Just as the March on Washington honors the great will of the people each year, we honor the legacy of this legislation and continue to dedicate ourselves every day to the equal justice for which those heroes so bravely fought.”
