Texas Democrats Celebrate the 59th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act

AUSTIN, Texas -- Today, State Representative Senfronia Thompson, the Dean of the Texas House of Representatives, co-founder of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, and the longest-serving woman and African-American legislator in Texas state history, released the following statement on the 59th anniversary of the enactment of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964:

“59 years ago today, a great Texas Democrat by the name of Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“When I was a little girl growing up in Texas, segregated schools were the law of the land. I couldn’t drink at the same water fountains as white people, we wouldn’t be served at the same restaurants, and we weren’t even allowed to try on clothes at the store or anything else.

“But I refused to sit on the sidelines.

“As a student at Texas Southern University, I participated in the lunch counter sit-ins in between my classes. When I became eligible to vote, I had to find a polling place and buy a poll tax - a law explicitly designed to keep people like me, my family and community from voting. That was life in the Jim Crow South.

“With the signing of the Civil Rights Act, Black and Brown Texans like me were suddenly given a slightly more equal footing in this country we called home.

“I want to use this anniversary to mark two things.

“First: we can do big things. Up until 1964, it was thought that the Civil Rights Act could never pass. It took a whole lot of grit, hard work, creativity, and wisdom – from a determined majority of compassionate Americans and elected officials – to break through the gridlock and pass this monumental bill.

“It’s easy to lose hope in today’s political climate – with gerrymandering, attacks on voters’ rights and unfair institutional roadblocks. But we cannot lose hope. We must reflect on 1964 and recall how refusing to give up hope can change the world around us.

“Secondly: this fight continues to this day. Black and Brown Texans, at this very moment in time, still must deal with the fact that, even in a majority-minority state, we are treated as second-class citizens. Our ability to vote is under attack. We live with police brutality in our day-to-day lives. We are convicted and jailed at disproportionate rates. Countless Black moms and other Texans are dying because of unfair healthcare disparities. The list goes on and on.

“The fight looks slightly different from what it did when I was a young woman in 1964, but the injustice and discrimination are substantively the same: we must continue to push forward until that American ideal becomes a reality – that all men, including women, are created equal.”

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