The term “Civil Rights” may evoke images of Martin Luther King Jr. preaching, lunch counter sit-ins, and protest marches. From the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955–56 to the Lincoln Memorial “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963, this era resulted in the landmark Civil Rights Act, passed on July 2, 1964. Signed into law by President Johnson (see this month’s cover), this Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability or age.” Positively, this legislation reversed laws fashioned to discriminate against blacks; it also gave all Americans equal protections under the law. Yet, it did more. It effectively wrote a second constitution that gave the federal government power to coerce association with the force of law. Add in the various agencies and programs created by this Civil Rights Act, and two Americas have been fostered since the 1960s. For all the good the Civil Rights Movement did to rectify wrongs, it instituted others. And this month, we are going to consider these cross currents, and how the church committed to the cross of Christ can respond today with wisdom to the rights and the wrongs of the Civil Rights Movement.
