Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, or national origin by employers, and unions, and established the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Discrimination was not fully abolished, however, it opened the door to further progress. This further progress would result to an enactment of various other acts to help support the rights and cases of African-American people. The main goal of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was to deliver on the promise of equal and legal standing for all black Americans. Most Americans during the 1960s, only knew the potential of “equal protection of the laws” and expected Congress and the President to fulfill the promise of the constitutional …show more content…
However, individual states continued to allow unfair treatment of minorities. The Jim Crow laws were created to allow segregation throughout public facilities within the Southern states. “This law was designed to keep African Americans from gaining true equality” (Taylor17). As a result of the Jim Crow laws, a man by the name of Homer Plessy was arrested for refusing to move out of the white section of a train. The Supreme Court was presented with a court case called Plessy v. Ferguson. This court case had a conclusion of “separate but equal accommodations.” A challenge was presented as a result of the Plessy v. Ferguson court case decision. Brown v. Board of Education would question the notion of “separate but equal” in public schools. The case found that “separate but equal” in public schools to be a violation of the fourteenth amendment. This decision encouraged federal action to protect civil rights. Social questions continued to build throughout society. On August 28, 1963, Americans marched in Washington, DC and heard Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his famous I Have a Dream speech on jobs and freedom. This event focused on discrimination in employment, and civil rights abuses against African Americans, Latinos, and other ethnic groups. It also represented a support for the Civil Rights Act of …show more content…
Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act also had a profound effect on schools. There had only been incremental efforts to desegregate public schools and universities until this time. Desegregation was accomplished by busing, redistricting, and creating magnet schools. “Chief Council for NAACP Thurgood Marshall argued before the court that separate school systems for blacks and whites were inherently unequal, and thus violated the “equal protection clause” of the fourteenth amendment” (Brown). Various actions from four African-American college students who sat down at a racially segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina led to a statewide boycott of segregation within schools. From 1964 to 1968 the figures of African-American students who attended schools in the South had risen to thirty-two percent. By the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 it would also landmark equal job opportunities. President Lyndon Johnson ordered federal contractors to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated equally during employment no matter race, color, religion, or sex. The Civil Rights Act was a pavement for the Voting Rights Act, which prohibited literacy test and other discriminatory voting practices. This act aimed to overcome legal barriers that prevented African-Americans from exercising their right to vote. The act widened the franchise significantly and is considered to be the most far-reaching pieces of
The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first serious attempt by the United States government in 75 years to address the racial divide which had consumed the nation. At its core the Act was an attempt to address the suppression of Black American voting rights in southern states. The Act...
Kennedy’s Civil Rights Act, which called for the fair treatment of all races, changed the tone of the Civil Rights Movement. This doesn’t mean that everyone automatically started to change the way they thought about African Americans, but people started to come together and realize that change needed to happen soon. 5 months after Kennedy first announced the bill, he was shot in Dallas, Texas. It wasn’t until 8 months after Kennedy's assassination that Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill into effect on July 2, 1964. The bill was passed through congress with a 290-130 vote. (History Channel 2010) After the bill was passed, more action was taken to assure equal rights for African Americans. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was created to prevent discrimination and unfair treatment with African American voters. (Library of Congress) The 1964 Civil Rights Act sent a message loud and clear: no longer was discrimination or racism going to be tolerated. In fact, many people thought that change needed to happen soon, as a 1964 Gallup poll suggests. 58% approved of the bill while only 31% did not. 10% were undecided (Public Broadcasting Service 2015). Not only did those who were black support the bill, but many white national leaders started to support the ideas of the act. The bill became the national pathway to equal rights. However, not all were ready to move towards change. Following the signing of the bill, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were both assassinated.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed soon after the milestone March on Washington. In the largest march ever held in the United States, people of all races and colors gathered together to show legislature that racism would no longer be acceptable in society. Title VII, the section which deals with discrimination in the workforce is one small part of the larger piece of legislation. Title VII, of the Civil Rights Act, quickly became the most important arbiter of rights under the new law (Bennett-Alexander & Hartman, 2001). The workforce has drastically changed since the passage of the act. Women and minorities are engaged in employment now more than ever. With the passage of Title VII, the door was opened to prohibiting job discrimination and creating fairness in employment (Bennett-Alexander & Hartman, 2001). Soon after, protection against discrimination based on age and disability was provided.
The societies and aids that contributed to the dawning of the Civil Rights movement in 1955 fought for racial equality and led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, or gender and eventually established the Voting Act of 1965 that banned discrimination against voters (Zoeller 2.) African Americans transitioned into the twentieth century with hopes of overcoming obstacles against prejudice to obtain equality for all Americans.
The civil rights movement refers to all of the civil movements at the time between and specifically the period between 1954 and 1968. The primary goal of the civil rights movement was to end the racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans through the securing of legal recognition and as such they would be entitled to the same treatment as any other citizen under federal law. However, the civil rights movement also banned discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex and country of origin. In the 1950s and 60s in the southern US
The Civil Rights Era became a time in American history when people began to reach for racial equality. The main aim of the movement had been to end racial segregation, exploitation, and violence toward minorities in the United States. Prior to the legislation that Congress passed; minorities faced much discrimination in all aspects of their lives. Lynchings and hanging...
The Dred Scott decision stated that all African Americans, free or enslaved, were not considered citizens of the United States. This strengthened the push for anti-slavery in the North. This decision lead to many events in history to help African Americans gain their civil rights. Although this case expanded slavery and the tension between the Northern and Southern states, it was one of the most influential cases in American history. The Plessy v. Ferguson case established the "separate but equal" principle.The Plessy v. Ferguson doctrine required that any separate facilities were constitutional as long as they were equal . This case made segregation legal but, it was overruled in the Brown v. Board of Education case. The Brown v. Board of Education decision was a major legal victory in the Civil Rights Movement. The Brown v. Board of Education case had challenged the principles of "separate but equal" in 1954. This case resulted in the integration of schools and realization that all forms of segregation are wrong.
The Civil Rights Movement had a lot going on between 1954 and 1964. While there were some successful aspects of the movement, there were some failures as well. The mixture of successes and failures led to the extension of the movement and eventually a more equal American society.
On July 2, 1964, president Lyndon Baines Johnson signed a civil-rights bill that forbade discrimination in voting, education, employment and other areas of American life. As a U.S senator, he has helped weaken such bills because he felt it was the job of the state to decide. L.B.J suddenly changed his mind and decided to sign the bill that would change many people’s lives. Was this what L.B.J actually believed in or was it all out of politics. L.B.J’s decision to sing the civil rights act of 1964 was based off of principal.
In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act to end racial discrimination in employment, institutions like hospitals and schools, and privately owned public accommodations In 1965, congress returned suffrage to black southerners, by passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Foner 926). In the case of Loving v. Virginia (1967), the Supreme Court ruled that laws prohibiting interracial marriage were unconstitutional (Foner 951). Because of the civil rights movement in the sixties, minorities gained more rights than they had prior to the 1960s. While the 1960s were a time of advancement for minorities, it was also a time of advancement for women. In 1963, Congress passed the Equal Pay Act, which outlawed discrimination in the workplace based on a person’s gender (Foner 944).
One of the major goals of the American Civil Rights movement was to give all people regardless of race equal rights. In the United States, Civil rights are supposed to be for all people. Throughout history, people have had to fight for their rights when others tried to deny them. The ones who opposed them were mostly politicians. They passed the Jim Crow Laws. These laws affected millions of people and changed the course of history.
Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, segregation in the United States was commonly practiced in many of the Southern and Border States. This segregation while supposed to be separate but equal, was hardly that. Blacks in the South were discriminated against repeatedly while laws did nothing to protect their individual rights. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ridded the nation of this legal segregation and cleared a path towards equality and integration. The passage of this Act, while forever altering the relationship between blacks and whites, remains as one of history’s greatest political battles.
The civil rights act outlawed discrimination based on color, sex, and religion against any individuals. The civil rights act outlawed segregation in business such as theaters, restaurants, and hotels. The Title VII of the civil rights act model the Equal Employment Opportunity Commision to implement law(The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).The civil rights act of 1964 is considered one of the crowning legislative achievement of the civil rights movement. Throughout the winter and spring, early 1964, Johnson applied his formidable legislative acumen and skills to push the bill through congress. On January 21, 1964, President Johnson met with with Clarence Mitchell and Joseph Rauh discuss legislative strategy( A Long Struggle for Freedom The Civil Rights Act of
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbid businesses connected with interstate commerce to discriminate when choosing its employees. If these businesses did not conform to the act, they would lose funds that were granted to them from the government. Another act that was passed to secure the equality of blacks was the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This act, which was readopted and modified in 1970, 1975, and 1982, contained a plan to eliminate devices for voting discrimination and gave the Department of Justice more power in enforcing equal rights. In another attempt for equal rights, the Equal Employment ...
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 also stated the laws to protect discrimination based on colour, age, gender, national origin and religion in the workplace. These laws are