Today In Labor History April 11, 1964: Over 200 were arrested during a NAACP protest at San Francisco’s Auto Row, on Van Ness Street, over their refusal to hire African American workers. Thousands of protesters, of all ethnicities, occupied car showrooms and blockaded the street. The protests lasted throughout much of March and April and ended with the dealerships ending their racist ban. Later, on this same date in 1968, while the riots over Martin Luther King Junior’s assassination were winding down, the federal government enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which provided protections against discrimination in housing and against hate crimes. The law also made it a crime to cross state lines, or to use the mail (later internet), to “incite riots.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Ao2jINTk0

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Apr. 11, 1964 | Auto Row Protests in San Francisco

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