The Dr. Martin Luther King Planning Committee in Youngstown hosted an event and showed a documentary to remember significant events leading up to the signing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964.
 
Students from Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past, talked about the bus boycotts in Montgomery Alabama,  the murder of Emmit Till in Mississippi, the children's march in Birmingham Alabama where they were attacked by police with dogs and water hoses.
 
These and many other events galvanize outrage and support for passage of the sweeping changes in civil rights laws.
 
"We've come a long way and we need to continue to grow and we need to remember all those people who fought, bled, and died, and gave money and everything they had for people to have these rights. And that's people of all colors who put their lives on the line for us to have those rights," Jaladah Aslam said.
 
The legislation ended segregation in restaurants and places of business. It made employment discrimination illegal and pried opened doors once slammed shut.
 
A year later the Voting Rights Act passed making it illegal to make up tests or create impediments to prevent Black people from voting.  
 
"It was created for Black Americans, but it's been used for other minorities whether we're talking about Latin-X, Indigenous people, whether we're talking about handicapped, whether we're talking about women," Penny Wells Executive Director of Sojourn to the Past, and Yo MLK Planning Committee Co-convener added.
 
 
Jadalah Aslam remembers discrimination and having to sit at a back table not allowed to eat with whites when she was a little girl. 
 
"I remember as a little girl coming downtown to MCCroy's and you know me and my mom having lunch. And we could not sit at the long counter. We could sit, but they would not serve you, so we had to sit at the back counter," Youngstown MLK Committee Co-convener, and President of the Youngstown-Warren Black Caucus, Jaladah Aslam said.
 
She says it's important to remember this day, when civil rights legislation was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson noting it is not that long ago. 
 
The legislation prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. 
 
Both community leaders say when it comes to voting rights we need to make sure those rights remain for all voters.
 
"I agree in certain respects states need to be able to run their own elections, but when you have that and you have so many different versions of what people should do and shouldn't do, you're always going to have problems." Aslam emphasized.
 
She tells 21 News we need to not take it for granted and remember the people who died for the right for us to vote and go vote.
 
Both community leaders say the battle for civil rights and voting rights continues.
 
"We are still fighting that battle. In some ways we're regressing. I think we move forward and backwards. I think just as much as we needed people to stand up and speak out 60 years ago, we need people to do that today," Penny Wells emphasized.