President Joe Biden delivered a speech Monday at the LBJ Presidential Library celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. It is doubtful he included the largest beneficiaries of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. So let's set the record straight.
If you were to ask what The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was all about, more than likely most would say that this Act gave blacks their civil rights in the United States. It did that, but the truth of the matter is that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 affected more women than it affected blacks. Blacks made up about 10% of the population in 1964, whereas women have always made up over 50% of the population.
The prohibition against discrimination based on sex (gender) was added to Title VII (Civil Rights Act of 1964) at the last minute on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Yet, we think it is all about equality for black men and women. As the law was originally written, black women would have had more rights than white women, because black women were included in the 'race' word.
In the article written by Pavan Acharya "On 60th anniversary, a brief history of Civil Rights Act , July 28, 2024, he also took away the words of the rights that women had finally attained through the Civil Rights Act of 1964, by saying "The Civil Rights Act most notable made it illegal to segregate based on race, color, religion, or national origin in a variety of settings including public property, schools and universities and some private business." See that? He left out women (sex, meaning gender)
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
Women have only civil freedoms, not religious freedom. Because, you see, after the Civil Rights Act, women began working 'men's jobs,' and Christianity could not have that. The church should have been the first to grant women equality. But they did not stand up for full equality for women in the secular world then, and most will not stand up for women in the church now.
All around us are churches that have chosen to discriminate against women – which they can do because they can.
The natural progression, as we moved forward in the 20th century, would have been for churches to accept women in church leadership just as women were being accepted into colleges and places of business. But most did not do that. Instead, churches reacted with vehemence against women. They wanted to hold on to the male feel of Christianity, and they did.
Churches have continually denied capable spiritual women equality before God within their congregations. Women are denied equality by seminaries that teach male headship. Women are denied ministry equality by many denominations that teach only males can be the pastors, preachers, or priests. And, most shameful of all, women are denied by other women in their congregations who prevent them from pastoring churches and from becoming preachers, elders and deacons.
Religious and denominational leaders engaged in overly religious piety after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and this resulted in the formation of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and now Christian Nationalism. They are fighting to keep women where we were.
It wasn't until February 3, 1870, that black males got the right to vote with the signing of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, which said that citizens could not be denied the right to vote based on race. But it did not give women the right to vote, even though Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony pushed hard for the right for women to be able to vote. It would be another 50 years, August 26, 1920, before the 19th Amendment to the Constitution would give women that right. So it was 133 years after the statement "We the People" before women were included in that statement.
Why do you think that our country denied women the right to vote until 1920? Was it because they did not know better, or were they responding to a white male culture? It is impossible to believe that they did not know better. Women had been advocating for equal rights since right after the Revolutionary War, and were very active up through the Civil War. Voting was just one of the equal rights denied women.
This is a country that thought outside the box. This new country would not be led by kings who had power over them, but by a man who would be the President elected by an electoral college. That was extraordinary thinking, not envisioned by any other country, and they knew women wanted to have a voice.
Christian Nationalism has raised its ugly head.
There is a big movement to take us back to those days when women had few rights. J.D. Vance, vice president nominee, said "Let's give votes to all children in this country, but let's give control over those votes to the parents of those children." You can find it on youtube. And because of male headship, the deciding parent would be male, and wives and women will lose the rights that we have gained.
Women, don't forget that you are included in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Books by Shirley Taylor
The Biblical Marriage Myth: The Devil Comes Calling
The Power of a Book: The Street Evangelist
From Wife to Widow: What I know Now
Beyond the Grave: A Christian Dilemma
Raising the Hood: A Christian Look at Manhood and Womanhood
Women Equal – No Buts: Powered by the same Source
Dethroning Male Headship: 2nd Edition
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