On July 2, 1964, the United States Congress passed (and President Johnson signed into law) our nation’s Civil Rights Act. I was only two years old at the time, but as a boy raised in the South, I became deeply and permanently impacted by the photographs and news reels I saw of the way some Americans were treated in Southern cities, often by their own government. It is important that we be reminded how horrific this relatively recent time in our nation’s history really was.
Below are some important photographs reminding us of that dramatic time.