299 notes January 24, 2012 Just a friendly neighborhood reminder that the passing of the Civil Rights Act was not altruistic but was a good PR move American:You have no freedom. Russian:And you are lynching negroes. American:You have no bread. Russian:And you are lynching negroes. Folks refuse to get this. We were going head to head with the Soviet Union at the time. And then video coverage of the Civil Rights movement wasn't just airing on American televisions, but on TVs all over the WORLD. Folks internationally saw Whites beating, hosing, siccing dogs on, spitting on defenseless Black people. They saw Black people protesting and asked why they were doing that? Oh, Americans made them SLAVES and then STILL didn't give them their full rights after Emancipation?! American states legislated constant humiliation and cruelty to their own citizens? We were in Vietnam. How could we preach our freedom, justice and the American way to the world when we were denying it to citizens at home? Yup, the passing of the Civil Rights Act WAS a PR move. AND it was a move to take away the thing the Soviets could always bludgeon us with.