Civil Rights Act

[realisticphish]

at my practicum today, at the Ohio Historical Society, I was photocopying some letters that had been written to a senator in the mid-1960s, talking about the Civil Rights Act, which he was supporting (though he was a republican, and many letter-writers brought this point up). Interestingly, most of the letters came from California and the Pacific Northwest; some were from Ohio, and a very few came from the South.

There were a few pro-act letters, but there were a LOT more dismissing it as unneccesary. One, from a high school student, actually said "we let them vote, what more do they want?" I saw the phrase "the Negro species" used several times. The phrase "special rights" came up a lot too (which of course sounds familiar these days...)

I was actually getting very angry, and had to switch projects for a while. It was infuriating that I couldn't leap back through time and yell at these people.

[jwirr]

1. I was researching my family in a local paper years ago - I was active

in Native American issues at the time. I never finished the research because I ran into attitudes in the papers regarding Native Americans during Little Big Horn incidents and could not stand the hate that poured out of a community that I had grown up in. What lays under the surface of our local areas is not always pleasant. Your situation reminded me.

[NMMNG]

2. Amazing how bigotry never dies

and history keeps repeating itself.

[applegrove]

3. I remember doing research for a economics course. I was looking at the sociologists & statistician

journal during the 1930s. There was some very uncomfortable stuff in them there journals. Including that they didn't know what concentration camps would devolve into pretty soon.

[MrScorpio]

4. Yes, we've come a long way...

And in many ways, we have still a long way to go.