President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 while Martin Luther King and others look on.
“We shall overcome.”
When President Lyndon Johnson spoke those words before a Joint Session of Congress, he made the cause of overcoming injustice the cause of all Americans.
Johnson began his quest for a more just and honorable America with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the most transformational civil rights legislation since Reconstruction and a crucial step in the realization of America’s promise. In the years that followed, LBJ passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Together, this triumvirate of laws would ban discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, or national origin.
On April 8-10, 2014, the LBJ Presidential Library will host a Civil Rights Summit to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Summit, comprised of afternoon panel discussions followed by evening keynote addresses, will reflect on the seminal nature of the civil rights legislation passed by President Johnson while examining civil rights issues in America and around the world today.
You can watch live
The Summit will mark the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was spearheaded and signed into law by President Lyndon Baines Johnson. President Barack Obama will deliver the keynote address at the Summit on Thursday, April 10. Three former Presidents will also deliver remarks at the Civil Rights Summit: Jimmy Carter will speak on Tuesday, April 8; Bill Clinton will speak on Wednesday, April 9; and George W. Bush will speak on Thursday, April 10. (See the complete panel and speaker lineup.)
Live streaming
On youtube
The panels start today at 12:35pm with
Gay Marriage: A Civil Right?
followed by
1:40pm
Pathway to the American Dream: Immigration Policy in the 21st Century
(see speakers list)
Jimmy Carter will be speaking this evening - it will be presented on Tuesday, April 8 at 11 p.m. CT, with an encore presentation Wednesday, April 9 at 4:30 p.m. CT.
(hat tip to anotherdemocrat)