Shouting “50 years of civil rights, we’re still trying to get it right” on the steps of the Toledo Museum of Art, about 50 people gathered on Saturday to commemorate the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The crowd, assembled by the Toledo branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, marched on the museum from the African-American Legacy Project on Collingwood Boulevard.

“We don’t want to forget,” said Ray Wood, president of Toledo’s NAACP. “It was 50 years ago when we were just coming out of 1963, and all the events that happened in 1963 — you had the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the church bombing and the March on Washington.

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“We didn’t want to forget all the effort and support of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.”

Henry McCoy, a lifetime NAACP member, arrived to march because he said it’s important all people are given the respect and dignity they deserve as human beings.

“I am a man,” Mr. McCoy said. “Civil rights are important, especially with all the incidents going on in the world today. We’re going backward, and we need to go forward.”

Among other things, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2 of that year, required that qualifications to vote be equal for all citizens; forbade hiring, firing, or classification of employees on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin “except when religion, sex, or national origin is a bona fide occupational qualification,” ordered a two-year study of education in the United States aimed at providing equal educational opportunities, and ended the assignment of students to schools on racial grounds.

It also prohibited racial, ethnic, or religious discrimination by the operators of such “public accommodations” as hotels, restaurants, filling stations, and entertainment or sports venues. Federal authority was asserted over those businesses because they either catered to interstate travelers or were hosts to events engaged in interstate commerce, such as sports teams, traveling performers, and movies.

Mr. McCoy said the act’s passage was monumental because it marked a moment when people of all races and creeds came together for the betterment of society.

Remembering the past can help build a bridge to a more peaceful future, said Barbara Alexander, a Toledo resident who attended the march.

“Everybody needs to know their heritage and where they came from,” she said. “If you don’t know where you came from, you don’t know where you're going.”

Ms. Alexander said people should be more tolerant with one another. It’s especially important that youths study and think about the work of Martin Luther King, Jr.

“A lot of the younger people don’t realize what he did, and a lot of them need to go back to the old school and realize what he did,” Ms. Alexander said. “We need to reach the younger generation.”

Kris Turner can be reached at: kturner@theblade.com or 419-724-6103.

First Published September 21, 2014, 4:58 a.m.