Civil+Rights+Act

= Civil Rights Act of 1964 =

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 History
 In June of 1963, prior to the signing of the bill, President John F. Kennedy urged the country in a nationally televised address to take action toward guaranteeing equal treatment of every American regardless of race. After Kennedy’s assassination in November of 1963, his work continued with the proposal of the [|Civil Rights Act], which was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964.

The document forbids discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex, or national origin. It outlawed segregation in businesses such as theaters, restaurants, and hotels. It banned [|discriminatory] practices in employment and ended segregation in public places such as swimming pools, libraries, and public schools. Title IV of this act pertains to [|education] because it mandated unitary school systems as opposed to “separate but equal” systems and eliminated the separation of students by race. For example, as late as [|1963] only 12,000 of the 3,000,000 African Americans in the South attended integrated schools, in spite of the Brown decision.

Congress took more than a year to finally pass the bill. The U.S. Senate passed the bill by a 73 to 27 roll call vote. In all, the 1964 civil rights debate had lasted a total of 83 days, slightly over 730 hours, and had taken up almost 3,000 pages in the //Congressional Record//. The bill then returned to the House of Representatives for reconsideration. House leaders brought the resolution up for floor consideration on July 2 where members quickly approved the Senate-passed civil rights bill, 289 to 126. The bill then went immediately to the White House, where President Johnson welcomed the bill he had sought for so long. Within a few hours of passage, he signed it into law in a nationwide television broadcast from the White House.

Resources: [|A Case History: The 1964 Civil Rights Act]

[|Our Documents: Civil Rights Act]

 =The Impact = [|The Civil Rights Act of 1964] essentially acted as a catalyst for ending all kinds of discrimination. Because this act was passed, new laws were more easily introduced, such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which gave everyone, despite color and gender, the right to vote. Each title in this act brought an end to another discriminatory practice and this all had an impact on the education system in America.

Title IV demanded the desegregation of schools. Those behind The Civil Rights Act of 1964, made sure there were repercussions in place for those that may be tempted to remain unchanged. Title VI prohibited any agency receiving taxpayer funding from engaging in racial discrimination. This meant that if any school was found to still be segregated after the Act went into affect, their funding could be revoked.

In essence, The Civil Rights Act of 1964 impacted much more then the face of the education system. Like Brown vs. The Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas The Civil Rights Act of 1964 called for the desegregation of schools, but with that ruling came clear consequences for failure to comply and more extensive change across the United States for all minorities.

[|The Civil Rights Act 40 Years Later]