United States Congress
The early 1960s witnessed the rapid spread of activism in the civil-rights movement. Leaders such as Martin
Luther King, Jr. and James Farmer led the movement’s freedom marches and sit-ins. Malcolm X advocated
black revolution, pride in heritage and economic independence. White anxiety, reactionism, and overt racial
crimes blossomed in response. Intimidation, mass arrests, bombings, and the murders of civil-rights workers
increased across the South. Calling protection of civil rights a moral issue, President John F. Kennedy
submitted a new civil-rights act to Congress in June 1963. The inspiration for this proposal hearkened
back to the Civil Rights Act of 1875. It called for prohibiting the denial of equal access to any person
in hotels, restaurants, and other public facilities; declared a ban on job discrimination because of race;
authorized the attorney general to file school desegregation suits; and created an Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (the EEOC). Southerners and conservative Republicans stalled this legislation until after Kennedy’s
assassination, when appeals to the memory of the slain president combined with President Lyndon B. Johnson’s
arm-twisting to pass the measure in June 1964.
There are many important sections to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and this legislation affects every
citizen. In Title I, what methods of interfering with the right to vote are prohibited? Title II bans
discrimination and segregation in a large number of public facilities, and lists "race, color, religion
or national origin" as unacceptable reasons for discriminating. Is anything noticeable missing from
this list? The other provisions of the act cover a wide variety of civil-rights problems. Most important
to note are: Title V, which establishes the authority of the Civil Rights Commission; Title VI, banning
discrimination in any program receiving any form of federal aid; and Title VII, which established the
EEOC. Can you think of how this law affects you during the course of a week? Does anything more need to
be done?
Ironically, this legislation, intended to correct old wrongs and decades of discrimination and guarantee
constitutional rights to all Americans, has been twisted and misused. Old habits and ideas die hard, and
legislation cannot always change attitudes overnight. Women had to sue the EEOC to force action on women’s
equality. The Civil Rights Act has been twisted by claims of reverse discrimination, an idea that sounds
very appealing to some people but has no real basis in historical fact, as does discrimination against
minorities. The struggle for equal rights does not end with this legislation. |
