Trump’s Still Fighting ‘60s Civil

Illustration by Tess Brzycki

TRUMP IS STILL FIGHTING 1960S CIVIL RIGHTS LAWS

By Joel McNally

Ever since coming down the Trump Tower escalator to launch his presidential campaign with a direct appeal to racists by labeling Mexican immigrants as rapists and murderers, Donald Trump has been at war with the historic U.S. civil rights laws passed in the 1960s.

Trump is ramping up that racist rhetoric again as November approaches. In a televised interview, Trump suggested there’s actually been very little racial progress from the three major civil rights laws Democratic President Lyndon Johnson passed—the comprehensive Civil Rights Act in 1964, the Voting Rights Act in 1965 and the Fair Housing Act in 1968. “If you take a look at what Lyndon Johnson did, how has it worked out?” Trump sneered.

JOHNSON SIGNED THE FAIR HOUSING ACT ON APRIL 11, 1968, A WEEK AFTER THE MURDER OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. IN MEMPHIS, TENN.

Well, it’s true those laws didn’t prevent a racist demagogue from becoming president. But Trump’s latest blast from the past trying to scare “suburban housewives” into fearing Joe Biden might enforce that fair housing law and allow black people to “invade their neighborhood” suggests Trump is wrong. He simply has no idea how racially and politically diverse many suburbs have become. Not only could there already be a mixed-race family living next door, but suburban voters helped flip control of the U.S. House of Representatives from Republican to Democratic control two years ago.

Fight for Fair Housing

For Milwaukee, Trump’s fight against fair housing seems like old times again. Milwaukeeans, black and white, are still proud of their families’ participation in Milwaukee’s civil rights movement, whose importance President Johnson cited when he signed the Fair Housing Act into law. Johnson said Milwaukee called national attention to the need to end racial discrimination in housing. He wasn’t talking about the city’s mayor or its elected Common Council, except for one member.