Historic Sotterley holds lecture on 60th anniversary of Civil Rights Act

It’s been 60 years since the Civil Rights Act was enacted in 1964 and a panel of experts came together April 10 to discuss “How far have we come, and where do we need to go?”

The virtual discussion was the second in Historic Sotterley’s Presents People and Places series.

The lecture comprised of moderator and St. Mary’s College Community Affairs Liaison Kelsey R.M. Bush, Starr Center for the Study of the American at Washington College Deputy Director Jaelon T. Moaney, St. Mary’s College of Maryland senior Phoebe Tate and Roderick Lewis, who is Sen. Ben Cardin’s Southern Maryland field representative.

“They are incredible leaders who are starting to move forward in this world,” Historic Sotterley Executive Director Nancy Easterling said of the panel, “and making a real difference, and their ideas and perspectives will be appreciated.”

A news release stated the Civil Rights Act was a milestone in American democracy and justice, dismantling Jim Crow laws and paving a way for racial and gender equality. But with all the progress made, equality is still something that eludes many in the nation.

“Sixty years might seem like a long time ago for some of us,” Bush said. “But as they say, ‘Time and even age are relative.’ To put it into perspective, in our world today there is an affinity to denigrate young voices because of their lack of experience or they need to show respect. However, we forget that many of the voices that led to the Civil Rights Movement belonged to young people, especially for them to say, ‘Enough.’ Young people have been leaders and voices of change, and over time were proven that they were correct.”

The panel discussed how they view the progress that has been made in the previous 60 years, and the challenges that they feel we still see face today.

“One of the greatest achievements of the Civil Rights Movement is the ability for people of diverse backgrounds to actually come together and actually have the opportunity to interact with one another,” Tate said. “It also gives many voices that have been marginalized and disenfranchised for much of the history of this country to have that opportunity to join in.”

Bush asked how the Civil Rights Act of 1964 impacted the panelists’ lives and those around them.

“I see it as a guarantee that I am valued pretty much in the workplace,” said Tate, who interned at Historic Sotterley last year and is working on a St. Mary’s Project adapting slave narratives into a graphic novel. “And no matter what, I cannot be discriminated against, and if this does happen I have the backings of the legality and the government that this cannot stand.”

“I immediately think to what type of opportunities my grandparents, my parents would have had if it wasn’t for the Civil Rights Amendment, let alone the opportunities my siblings and I would have been able to have,” said Lewis, who is a graduate of St. Mary’s College of Maryland and a member of the St. Mary’s NAACP. “It really opened up society in many ways for Black Americans to have access to spaces that they were not allowed to be in before, so it was a major achievement in the struggle to advance civil rights in this country. It’s really hard to think how life would be without it.”

Bush welcomed Moaney to the conversation, whose appearance had been delayed by computer issues.

“Much like the theme for tonight’s conversation is ‘We Prevail,’ I’m grateful to have gotten over those technical difficulties,” said Moaney, who is a descendant of founding Black families in Kent and Talbot counties, and who was appointed by Gov. Wes Moore to the Maryland Commission on African American History & Culture.

Bush asked the panelists what challenges still exist in achieving true equity for all regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or identities.

“We need to be very cautious about who we’re speaking on behalf and for,” Moaney said. “I think there are so many well-intentioned people, eager people intent on joining those on the side of equality, but it is dangerous territory to be paraphrasing and even to the extent of appropriating. We still stand to benefit from hearing so many more voices, and I don’t want us to leave this call thinking that solely precluded to those being elected.”