The Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA) Created to Benefit Blacks and Indians

Photo: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1968, aka the Indian Civil Rights Act during the MLK riots, April 10, 1968, from Wikimedia Commons

The Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA) came into being as a result of the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King and a decade of protests, mostly by Black Americans. It was activist Phoenix Moon who first tipped me off to this glaring fact hiding in plain sight.

Dr. King was killed on April 4, 1968; and as many Black people rioted in reaction, President Johnson signed the new Civil Rights Law into effect on April 10. 

This act, officially known as the Civil Rights Act of 1968, guaranteed that American Indians would enjoy all the rights already in the Constitution, not just from the federal government, but from their own Tribal governments. 

But, the Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA) is only part of the 1968 Act. Other portions are the Fair Housing Act, banning housing discrimination on the basis of race; and the H. Rap Brown Act, which deals with accusations of carrying firearms across state lines with the intent to incite rioting. (The activist H. Rap Brown is currently in federal prison on later charges and advocates are requesting President Biden to grant him clemency as he is terminally ill.) 

Even US Hate Crime Laws are based in the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Another result was the Division of Indian Health was elevated to a federal bureau. The 1973 Wounded Knee Occupation was actually based on dissatisfaction with the elected Sioux government, though it is unclear if the Indian Civil Rights Act was invoked at any time during the 71-day Occupation.

Though Civil Rights is usually framed as a Black issue, and it was the fires of the King riots that got president LBJ to sign such sweeping legislation, the name that has stuck with the 1968 Civil Rights Act is the “Indian Civil Rights Act.” 

This is surprising, because the most high-profile Indian protests of the era, Alcatraz (1969-70) and Wounded Knee (1973), happened after the passage of the Indian Civil Rights Act.  It was 14 years of  Black Civil Rights activism, from the 1954 murder of Emmit Till and the Montgomery Bus Boycott to the numerous other marches and battles; that got the Indian Civil Rights act passed. Mrs Rosa Parks and MLK’s wife, Coretta, were Civil Rights activists of part-Indian origin.

Or maybe it is a federal admission that many Indian people and Black people are the same people.   

As always, thanks to Phoenix Moon for Intellectual inspiration

References:

Civil Rights Act of 1968, Wikipedia

Indian Civil Rights Act 1968: 55th Anniversary, YouTube

Native Voices, https://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/resources/careers-high-school.html

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