The issue of “Time” pictured above came out exactly 50 years ago today.

The British Conservative Party poster is from 1964 as well: That’s what racism (and anti-immigrant bias) looked like in politics in the US, UK, and elsewhere. Ugly and raw. In 1964 the US passed the Civil Rights Act, one of the biggest milestones in American history and second only to the Emancipation Proclamation of hundred years prior in importance for African-Americans and for creating a more equal society. Racism didn’t die in 1964 but it was seriously injured. I met one of they key US Senators who helped pass the US Civil Rights Act, a Republican who crossed party lines to support it. Even as a child I knew enough to thank him for that political bravery and for that compassion.