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. Racial unrest by the summer of 1963 was at its height since the Civil War. President Kennedy picked up the situation at the close of the Eisenhower years at a time when tensions were rapidly increasing. By the summer of 1963, however, after a series of violent demonstrations in the South, particularly in Birmingham, Alabama, President Kennedy pushed for a very strong civil rights bill in Congress. The first of its kind since the Civil War, this bill drastically called for the end of all segregation in all public places. In the eyes of the civil rights movement leaders, this bill was long over due. Kennedy’s crusade began slowly to the dismay of many civil rights leaders in February of 1963. He began by sending the United States Congress a “Special Message on Civil Rights,” stating, Our Constitution is color blind, ...but the practices of the country do not always conform to the principles of the Constitution... Equality before the law has not always meant equal treatment and opportunity. And the harmful, wasteful and wrongful results of racial discrimination and segregation still appear in virtually every aspect of national life, in virtually every part of the nation (Loevy, 5). Kennedy received praise for these strong and moving words yet was criticized for his weak legislative proposals to remedy the situation. By May of 1963, his proposal would change greatly however, after two men, from opposite positions set the civil rights movement into intense motion. Martin Luther King despite advice to do otherwise began massive protests in the street of Birmingham. To combat these protests, Police Commissioner “Bull” Conner used any means, including dogs, fire hoses, and electric cattle prods on protestors. Making newspapers and televi... ... middle of paper ... ...tates on a social level but politically too. This bill set the precedent for using a cloture to stop a filibuster in the Senate. Similar cloture votes in 1966 and 1968, with bills for equal voting rights and guaranteed equal housing respectively were used to stop Southern filibusters. The Civil Rights Act also proved that mass demonstration and peaceful protesting are heard in Washington D.C. Martin Luther King and the Leadership Conference started with nothing and achieved everything. From the segregated South those who fought for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 changed the course of American history and ridded the nation of inequality under the law. Works Cited Berman, Daniel M., A Bill Becomes a Law, The Macmillan company, New York: 1966. Levy, Peter B., The Civil RIghts Movement, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1998. Web. 24 June 2015. https://www.questia.com/read/10045885/the-civil-rights-movement Loeby, Robert D.,To End All Segregation, University Press of America, Maryland: 1990. Whalen, Charles and Barbara, The Longest Debate, Seven Locks Press, Washington D.C.:1985. Web. 3 July 2015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27550291?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
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Show MoreThe Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It was the “Crowning Legislative” achievements of Civil Rights movement. Before the Act of 1964, 57% of
On April 4th, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, an event that would change history forever occurred. That was the day James Earl Ray assassinated the driving force of the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. It shook the nation, as the man who was planning on bringing peace and racial harmony in the United States was killed in an instant. He was probably the most influential scapegoat in American history, setting out to create equality for all races in America. There were many extremist white-based groups which detested the idea of equality, believing that whites were superior over all, groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Martin Luther King did not back down when groups like the KKK harassed him; he used their hate against them and allowed it to thrust him forward for the sake of bettering his cause and pushing towards racial equality. In the end, Martin Luther King was assassinated for his passion and beliefs; his hard work paid off because after his death, there was at least legal racial equality in the U.S. His bravery and strength
Brunner, Borgna. "Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement." Infoplease. Infoplease, 2007. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is considered groundbreaking legislation for a number of reasons. Prior to this bill, there was no legislation that made segregation, or discrimination against African-Americans illegal. Taking a closer look at the law will reveal the various facets through which the Civil Rights Act denounces segregation. While this legislation is composed of eleven titles, it is really the first seven which caused the most noticeable change in the American landscape. Title I of the act “[was] designed to close loopholes that the Southern States [had] discovered” (Summary of Provisions) in previous Civil Rights bills, primarily in the topi...
For 75 years following reconstruction the United States made little advancement towards racial equality. Many parts of the nation enacted Jim Crowe laws making separation of the races not just a matter of practice but a matter of law. The laws were implemented with the explicit purpose of keeping black American’s from being able to enjoy the rights and freedoms their white counterparts took for granted. Despite the efforts of so many nameless forgotten heroes, the fate of African Americans seemed to be in the hands of a racist society bent on keeping them down; however that all began to change following World War II. Thousands of African American men returned from Europe with a renewed purpose and determined to break the proverbial chains segregation had keep them in since the end of the American Civil War. With a piece of Civil Rights legislation in 1957, the federal government took its first step towards breaking the bonds that had held too many citizens down for far too long. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was a watered down version of the law initially proposed but what has been perceived as a small step towards correcting the mistakes of the past was actually a giant leap forward for a nation still stuck in the muck of racial division. What some historians have dismissed as an insignificant and weak act was perhaps the most important law passed during the nation’s civil rights movement, because it was the first and that cannot be underestimated.
(4) The Civil Rights Act: In 1964 congress passed a Civil Rights Act prohibiting racial discrimination in restaurants, theaters, hotels, hospitals, and public facilities of all sorts. This civil rights act also made it easier and safer for Southern Blacks to register and vote. Laws were passed to help poor people improve their ability to earn money, a program to give extra help to children at risk even before they were old enough to go to school, and a program to train school dropouts.
On June 11, 1963, John F. Kennedy made history when he pleaded for support on live television. While a majority of the American people were shocked by his plea, many Americans saw the broadcast as a spark igniting a change in the way African American’s were treated. That evening, John F. Kennedy asked the American people for their support of his Civil Rights Bill. The bill, one of the examples in which Kennedy responded to the Civil Rights Movement, would bring an end to segregation in public places among other Jim Crow laws. However, much of his response involved the national outlook on the events that took place in the Civil Rights Movement. John F. Kennedy started a national conversation on the Civil Rights Movement throughout America promoting
the civil rights movement dramatically changed the face of the nation and gave a sense of dignity and power to black Americans. Most of all, the millions of Americans who participated in the movement brought about changes that reinforced our nation’s basic constitutional rights for all Americans- black and white, men and women, young and old.
African Americans had been struggling to obtain equal rights for scores of decades. During the 1960’s, the civil rights movement intensified and the civil rights leaders entreated President Kennedy to intervene. They knew it would take extreme legislature to get results of any merit. Kennedy was afraid to move forward in the civil rights battle, so a young preacher named Martin Luther King began a campaign of nonviolent marches and sit-ins and pray-ins in Birmingham, Alabama to try and force a crisis that the President would have to acknowledge. Eventually things became heated and Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor released his men to attack the protesters, which included many schoolchildren. All of this was captured and televised to the horror of the world. Finally this forced the President into action and he proposed a bill outlawing segregation in public facilities. The bill became bogged down in Congress but civil righ...
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 resulted from one of the most controversial House and Senate debates in history. It was also the biggest piece of civil rights legislation ever passed. The bill actually evolved from previous civil rights bills in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. The bill passed through both houses finally on July 2, 1964 and was signed into law at 6:55 P.M. EST by President Lyndon Johnson. The act was originally drawn up in 1962 under President Kennedy before his assassination. The bill originated from two others, and one of which was the Equal Opportunity Act of 1962 that never went into law. This bill made up the core of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Bureau of National Affairs 18-20).
From the beginnings of US history, African Americans have been marginalized and mistreated. Beginning with the Atlantic Slave trade to what many would argue the present day, Blacks have been considered unequals in society. By the 1950s African Americans had endured centuries of white supremacy, embedded in policy, social code and both intimate and public forms of racial biases and restrictions. Specifically in the years leading up to the movement the social and political order of Jim Crow pushed many over the brink. The famous, “separate but equal” saying was used as a cover up for inherently racist policies. In the late 1800s up into the 1960s, a majority of US states administered discriminatory policies and segregation through "Jim Crow" laws. Examples of these laws existed in Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, and Texas with the prohibition of mixed race schools: “The schools for white children and the schools for negro children shall be conducted separately.” Other Jim Crow laws prohibited intermarriage between blacks and whites, “ The marriage of a person of Caucasian blood with a
Lyndon B Johnson was elected president on November 22, 1963 directly after the assassination of John F Kennedy, “the elevation of Lyndon B Johnson to the office of the president of the United States was impressively smooth”(Robert E. Gilbert, 761). Prior to his election Johnson was worked closely with the US government as a member of Congress, the US Navy, and as a US Senator. From his first political position to his last Johnson had one goal, making America into a "Great Society". It was through this idealist philosophy of his that he became invested in the Civil Rights Movement. Lyndon B Johnson’s role in the Civil Rights Movement was key to its success; Johnson proved his devotion to the people and their rights when he said, "The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. But that is just the beginning”(Government Printing Office, pp. 635-640). Johnson wanted nothing more than to see the movement, in which so many fought f...
Williams, Juan. Eye on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1987.
Before any steps could be taken for the equality of human kind, we had the tackle the idea of intergrationism. This time is often referred to as the Nadir of American Race Relations, which simply put means that racism was at its worst during the time period of the Civil Rights Movement. Pulling together for equality proved to be a grueling task for Americans. In order to move into the future, one must let go of the past, and many people were not eager to abandon the beliefs that had been engrained in them since birth. Racial discrimination was present nationwide but the outrageous violence of African Americans in southern states became know as Jim Crow Laws.
Massive protests against racial segregation and discrimination broke out in the southern United States that came to national attention during the middle of the 1950’s. This movement started in centuries-long attempts by African slaves to resist slavery. After the Civil War American slaves were given basic civil rights. However, even though these rights were guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment they were not federally enforced. The struggle these African-Americans faced to have their rights ...