The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and “We Shall Overcome”

Civil Rights Act On July 2 in 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The important act, which had survived heated discussion in the Senate and the House of Representatives, made racial segregation in public places illegal.

The law had an even broader impact.  It also prohibited discrimination on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin in schools and in employment.

The Signing

President Johnson, who worked hard to push through the legislation after President John F. Kennedy’s death, used more than 75 pens to sign the legislation. He gave out the pens to many people who helped with the bill, including Martin Luther King, Jr. King later said the pen was one of his most cherished possessions.

The video below features President Johnson giving the pen to King. It also includes some of Johnson’s speech before the signing.

“We Shall Overcome”

One of the songs that played a significant role in the civil rights movement was “We Shall Overcome.” The song developed from an African-American hymn first used as a protest song by striking tobacco workers in 1945.

“We Shall Overcome” grew to help inspire changes that shook the world. Many continue to recognize its importance. In recognition of the song’s role in the civil rights movement, for the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, members of Congress joined hands and sang the song.

The video below is from a recording by a number of artists — including John Legend, Joss Stone and The Blind Boys of Alabama — for Soundtrack for a Revolution (2011), an album of songs from the civil rights movement.

One of the artists who helped popularize the song was folksinger Pete Seeger.  In this video, Seeger explains the history behind the song.

Of course, the Civil Rights Act did not end racial discrimination.  But it was an important step in the ongoing process.

One of the reasons “We Shall Overcome” is a great song is its timelessness. It is not a song of “we have overcome” about past accomplishments.  It is a song that reminds us that there are always more struggles ahead of us to overcome. And we shall.


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    Anybody Here Seen My Old Friend John?

    Less than five years after John F. Kennedy was killed on November 22, 1963, the country lost Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy to the bullets of assassins in 1968. Later that year, in tribute to the fallen men, Dion released the song, “Abraham, Martin, and John,” which became a hit in a country in shock and mourning.

    The song, written by Dick Holler, has been performed by a number of artists, but nobody has matched Dion’s moving version. In the video below, he performs the song on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. [June 2014

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    “First” Interracial Kiss on TV

    Interracial Kiss

    The first interracial kiss on broadcast television is often cited as having occurred in a Star Trek episode “Plato’s Stepchildren.” The episode featured a kiss between Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura and William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk.

    Maybe they were able to break this new ground because the alien Platonians used their telekinetic powers to force the two to kiss. This scene aired on television on November 22, 1968.

    In this video, Nichols explains how the kiss caused some controversy on set and how Shatner becomes a hero of the story. While making the episode, NBC forced the actors to do the scene again without the kiss so they would have options in what they used. Shatner, however, ensured the kiss would be used by intentionally screwing up other takes without the kiss.

    Was it really the first interracial kiss on television? Other sources cite an interracial kiss on a British television show in 1964 between the characters Dr. Mahler (Joan Hooley) and Dr Farmer (John White) on the show Emergency Ward 10. Some also note that Our Gang segments had played on TV where the character Buckwheat, played by Billie Thomas, had kissed white girls.

    But even if Star Trek was not the first in the world, it was groundbreaking at the time, as was the role of Lt. Uhura. Even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at one point told Nichols that she played an important role as an officer where her race and gender were not an issue.

    What is your favorite rule-breaking scene from Star Trek? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. On “Meet the Press” After Selma-to-Montgomery March

    Most today are familiar with Martin Luther King Jr. giving powerful speeches, but it is rarer to see clips of him engaged in conversation. For MLK Day this year, check out the following video when King appeared on Meet the Press on March 28, 1965.

    In the video, King discusses voting rights, police brutality, the civil rights movement, and recent nonviolent protests. The interview took place one week after King led the five-day march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to push for voting rights and raise awareness about civil rights violations. A transcript of the interview is available at the King Center website.


    It is interesting to see the long interview in context as in the above video.  We see another side of King. . . and the media.

    Recently, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes analyzed King’s appearances on Meet the Press from 1960-1966, noting that the questioning often shows that the mainstream media seemed at war with King.

    What do you think of King’s appearance on Meet the Press? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    When Bob Dylan’s Ship Comes In

    Dylan When the Ship Comes In

    no vacancyDuring the summer of 1963, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez were driving on a trip to perform together. During the trip, an incident occurred that would inspire one of Dylan’s great songs, “When the Ship Comes In.”

    A Hotel Stop

    On the road, Dylan and Baez were in ragged clothes when they stopped at a hotel for the night. At this point in their careers, Joan Baez was the more famous of the two nationally.  Dylan, however, still was highly regarded in the folk community, had recorded two albums, and had his songs covered by several artists.

    The motel clerk recognized Baez and gave her a room, even though she was not wearing any shoes. But the clerk refused a room to Dylan because of his scraggly appearance. Baez was angry and stepped in on Dylan’s behalf, persuading the clerk to give a room to her unkempt companion.

    It must have been difficult for Dylan to face the rejection and then have to be saved by Baez.  His embarrassment must have been magnified because he was just starting — or hoping to start — a relationship with her.

    When the Ship Comes In

    For someone with Dylan’s talents, though, the best revenge was his music. That night, in his hotel room, in his anger and humiliation, Bob Dylan sat down and began writing the following words:

    A song will lift
    As the mainsail shifts,
    And the boat drifts on to the shoreline;
    And the sun will respect
    Every face on the deck,
    The hour that the ship comes in.

    When the Ship Comes In (live) – Bob Dylan (press play)

    His new song, “When the Ship Comes In,” was a song of revolution that came out of a personal slight that evening. And Dylan was not in a forgiving mood.  He sang about the forthcoming change where chains will bust and fall to “be buried at the bottom of the ocean,” elevating his slight into something Biblical:

    Then they’ll raise their hands,
    Sayin’ we’ll meet all your demands;
    But we’ll shout from the bow “your days are numbered,”
    And like Pharaoh’s tribe,
    They’ll be drowned in the tide;
    And like Goliath, they’ll be conquered.

    The March on Washington

    Not many weeks after the motel incident, Dylan and Baez performed “When the Ship Comes In” at the March on Washington in August of 1963. So the song born out of pique at a hotel clerk took stage alongside Martin Luther King Jr. when he gave his “I Have a Dream” Speech.

    Thus, Dylan’s song framed MLK’s speech with the warning, “The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.”

    Revolution

    Revolutions are often borne out of personal slights. But personal slights are often symbols of the system, so there is nothing wrong with such a genesis.

    One instigation for the American Revolution was a tax on tea, but the tax was symbolic of something deeper. The Occupy Wall Street movement was fueled partly by people fed up with a system that had slighted them individually. Similarly, one can look at recent protests around the world to see movements that started small and grew into something unfathomable.

    The year after Dylan wrote “When the Ship Comes In,” the song appeared on Dylan’s The Times They Are A-‘Changin’ (1964) album, his first album of all original songs. Some of the themes of “When the Ship Comes In” are echoed in the title song of the album: “There’s a battle outside ragin’;/It’ll soon shake your windows/And rattle your walls.”

    Maybe the battle does not rage in the U.S. like it did in the 1960s, but it still continues here and around the world.

    And that’s the story behind the song.

    Bonus Source Information: In Martin Scorsese’s documentary No Direction Home, Baez tells the story about the hotel and the “devastating” song, not Dylan. So he may have a different perspective on the night. In Keys to the Rain, Oliver Trager, who calls the Live Aid version above “botched,” notes that Dylan once explained that “When the Ship Comes In” was less about sitting down and writing a song than being a type of song “[t]hey’re just in you so they’ve got to come out.” A better live version of the song was recorded at Carnegie Hall on October 26, 1963, two months after the March on Washington performance. It is included on the soundtrack to the Martin Scorsese documentary on No Direction Home: The Soundtrack (The Bootleg Series Vol. 7).

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