Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was one of the most important civil rights laws in the history of the United States. It outlawed discrimination, ended racial segregation, and protected the voting rights of minorities and women.
Lyndon Johnson signing Civil Rights Act
by Cecil Stoughton
President John F. Kennedy
On June 11, 1963 President John F. Kennedy gave a speech calling for a civil rights law that would give "all Americans the right to be served in facilities that are open to the public" and would offer "greater protection for the right to vote." President Kennedy began to work with Congress to create a new civil rights bill. However, Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 and President Lyndon Johnson took over.
Signed into Law
President Johnson also wanted a new civil rights bill to be passed. He made the bill one of his top priorities. After working the bill through the House and the Senate, President Johnson signed the bill into law on July 2, 1964.
Main Points of the Law
The law was divided up into 11 sections called titles.
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Title I - The voting requirements must be the same for all people.
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Title II - Outlawed discrimination in all public places such as hotels, restaurants, and theatres.
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Title III - Access to public facilities could not be denied based on race, religion, or national origin.
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Title IV - Required that public schools no longer be segregated.
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Title V - Gave more powers to the Civil Rights Commission.
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Title VI - Outlawed discrimination by government agencies.
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Title VII - Outlawed discrimination by employers based on race, gender, religion, or national origin.
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Title VIII - Required that voter data and registration information be provided to the government.
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Title IX - Allowed civil rights lawsuits to be moved from local courts to federal courts.
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Title X - Established the Community Relations Service.
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Title XI - Miscellaneous.
Voting Rights Act
A year after the Civil Rights Act was signed into law, another law called the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed. This law was meant to insure that the right to vote was not denied any person "on account of race or color."
Interesting Facts about the Civil Rights Act of 1964
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A higher percentage of republicans (80%) in the House voted in favor of the law than democrats (63%). Same thing occurred in the Senate where 82% of republicans voted in favor versus 69% of democrats.
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The Equal Pay Act of 1963 said that men and women should be paid the same money for doing the same job.
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Southern democrats were staunchly against the bill and filibustered for 83 days.
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Most voting requirements beyond age and citizenship were eliminated by the Voting Rights Act.
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Martin Luther King, Jr. attended the official signing-in of the law by President Johnson.
The passing of the act created the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission that would oversee that the laws were upheld in employment and hiring. It became against the law to allow any Federal money to be used if there were situations of discrimination.
This opened the door to allow schools, who received Federal funding, to have segregated classrooms. This was of great importance in the south, where many of the ‘Black Only’ schools were poorly supported. It removed the “Jim Crow Laws” that kept Black Americans away from the voting polls and was hailed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr as a ‘second emancipation’.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the beginning of the final expansion of freedoms for many people. In the years to follow, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, which removed any of the previous requirements set in place by local governments requiring literacy tests to be passed before being allowed to vote.
Additional laws that were passed, thanks to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 included The Fair Housing Act of 1968 which stated that discrimination of any kind in the purchase or renting of a home or any living area was against the law.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. First proposed by President John F. Kennedy, it survived strong opposition from southern members of Congress and was then signed into law by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. In subsequent years, Congress expanded the act and passed additional civil rights legislation such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965.