Proposed by John F. Kennedy, and signed into law in 1964 by Lyndon Johnson, the Civil Rights Act was a sweeping, comprehensive piece of legislation intended to end discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin; it is often called the most important U.S. law on civil rights since Reconstruction (1865–77).
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Civil Rights Movement
In the 1950s and 1960s, civil rights activists in the United States used nonviolent protest, civil disobedience and legal action to end segregation and pursue equality for all Americans.
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Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a minister and activist who led the U.S. civil rights movement from the 1950s until his 1968 assassination.
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March on Washington
The 1963 political rally known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a key moment in the struggle for civil rights.
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Black History Month
Black History Month celebrates the contributions of African Americans to American history and culture.
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A number of southern and border state Democratic senators tried to block the Civil Rights Act through a parliamentary procedure known as a filibuster, during which West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd held up the bill's passage by speaking for nearly 15 consecutive hours.
Title I of the act guarantees equal voting rights by removing registration requirements and procedures biased against minorities and the underprivileged. Title II prohibits segregation or discrimination in places of public accommodation involved in interstate commerce. Title VII bans discrimination by trade unions, schools, or employers involved in interstate commerce or doing business with the federal government. The latter section also applies to discrimination on the basis of sex and established a government agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), to enforce these provisions. The act also calls for the desegregation of public schools (Title IV), broadens the duties of the Civil Rights Commission (Title V), and assures nondiscrimination in the distribution of funds under federally assisted programs (Title VI).
The Civil Rights Act was a highly controversial issue in the United States as soon as it was proposed by President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Although Kennedy was unable to secure passage of the bill in Congress, a stronger version was eventually passed with the urging of his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed the bill into law on July 2, 1964, following one of the longest debates in Senate history. White groups opposed to integration with blacks responded to the act with a significant backlash that took the form of protests, increased support for pro-segregation candidates for public office, and some racial violence. The constitutionality of the act was immediately challenged and was upheld by the Supreme Court in the test case Heart of Atlanta Motel v. U.S. (1964). The act gave federal law enforcement agencies the power to prevent racial discrimination in employment, voting, and the use of public facilities.
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