Opinion: The freedom embedded in my family’s dreams became real 60 years ago

Editor’s Note: Lonnie G. Bunch III is the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. Read more opinion at CNN.

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During the 1960s, our family road trips from our New Jersey home to visit relatives in North Carolina were always full of education and adventure, but they were also tempered by the reality of traveling through the Jim Crow South. Roadside diners were not available to all who were hungry. Gas station restrooms and hotels were still segregated by skin color.

Like many Black families, in order to avoid indignities and danger present in such trips, we had to prepare to go “down South.” We had to be self-sufficient: My mother created meals that would last until North Carolina.

My father kept an eye out for Esso gas stations because they were the only place that allowed Black travelers to use the restrooms. Although I was young, I remember seeing signs that said “Whites Only” in front of businesses and hotels. As a family, we always discussed the challenges before going.

One trip in 1965 stands out, though. It was one of the first times we used the recently opened I-95. We stopped at the Maryland House rest stop in Aberdeen, Maryland, a new colonial-style brick building that provided food and relaxation for weary travelers. I don’t know why my parents took a risk and stopped at an unfamiliar place. It could be that they tired of egg salad sandwiches, or maybe they simply felt enough was enough and that we had the right to stop there just like everyone else.

We were trepidatious about the reception a Black family might receive there. As we sat down, we saw some stares, but there was no confrontation. We had relieved smiles as we slowly realized there would be no indignities served with our meals. It was my first experience in a post-segregation South. I did not recognize it at the time, but that day my family had become a direct beneficiary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which had passed the summer before. The moment was as transformative for me as it was long overdue for the country.

July 2, 2024, marked the 60th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act, a historic anniversary that has come and gone this year with relatively little fanfare. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed it into law that same day.

It is disheartening how few people understand and appreciate the legislation’s transformative power. Just consider how many have been helped by it, how different the nation would look without it and how much was sacrificed to attain the rights so many take for granted. The act was a major weapon in the battle to overcome Jim Crow segregation.

While the law directly benefited African Americans, in reality, its impact was much broader. It barred unequal application of voter registration requirements and outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin in public accommodations such as restaurants, motels or theaters and provided equal opportunity for employment. It also prohibited gender-based discrimination, extending advancements of the Equal Pay Act of 1963.

As impressive as the Civil Rights Act was at the time, its legacy endures, continuing to open the gates of opportunity. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968 built on its progress, and 1972’s Equal Employment Opportunity Act strengthened regulatory authority to enforce its anti-discrimination laws, applied it to state and local governments and extended its application to pregnant women in the workplace.

Some 60 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the legislation’s Title VII provision was applied to LGBTQ rights against discrimination. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, a landmark piece of legislation in its own right, was heavily influenced by its predecessor in spirit and structure, broadly extending similar protections to people with disabilities.

When the historic signing of the 1964 bill is commemorated, we inevitably recall the black-and-white photo of Johnson surrounded by congressmen, with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. one of the few faces of color behind him. While Johnson deserves praise for his political maneuvering to ensure passage of the bill, we must give proper credit to the actions of African Americans and their allies who marched, were arrested and were killed by those determined to deny liberty and justice for all.

Without the sacrifices of Emmett Till, civil rights icon Medgar Evers and Mississippi civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, among many others, the legislation might not have been possible. If not for the horrifying images on the nightly news of the young Freedom Riders beaten and firebombed and set upon by dogs and sometimes knocked off their feet by the force water sprayed by high pressure fire hoses, the White public would not have been engaged.

Those who protested and resisted, from Mamie Till-Mobely, the mother of Emmett Till, to Dr. King to civil rights organizers Diane Nash and John Lewis, caused a nation to confront itself, turning public sentiment toward justice. They showed civil rights not to be an abstraction applied to a few, but a life-or-death struggle for the soul of a nation affecting us all.

It should be evident that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was not the endpoint of that struggle, but a single point on a continuum of those endeavoring to expand Americans’ freedom in opposition to those who would constrain it.

The sacrifices that led to that historic bill should inspire us, even haunt us, reminding us to never retreat from the good fight. We should reflect on all throughout our history who helped the nation live up to its ideals — from those working for the abolition of slavery to those lifting their voices for justice and equality today — and follow their lead by continuing to extend the blessings of liberty to all.

Weakening the movement for freedom and fairness embedded in the Civil Rights Act not only weakens us all, it prevents us from being the nation of our dreams. As we celebrate this landmark legislation we owe a debt of gratitude to all those whose eternal vigilance helped make real the promise of freedom.