Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Author: Lawrence Peters
• Pages: 117-118

Page 117

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy left the United States of America in a period of turmoil and uncertainty, personified in the new and unknown President Lyndon Johnson. President Johnson was left with an

U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson shakes hands with civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and hands him a pen to sign the Civil Right Act, July 2, 1964. © BETTMANN/CORBIS

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unpopular war in Vietnam, an unknown but potentially cataclysmic relationship with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the domestic time bomb of civil rights in the United States.

The era of 1954 to 1970 is known for the struggle of African Americans to gain equality de facto and under the law. The spark of the civil rights movement was the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, when the Court decided that separate is inherently unequal. This was a reversal of an earlier decision. By making this decision the Supreme Court required that all schools desegregate with all due speed. This was the first step toward integration for the general African American population of the United States, but in many areas, especially the southern states, there was opposition to the idea of integration. Public accommodations often had separate facilities for Caucasians and African Americans.

In order to address these issues, Kennedy had called for new civil rights legislation to guarantee equal access to all public accommodations and available goods and services. Upon his death, however, there was much concern that the new civil rights law would never see the light of day. Johnson used the situation to validate Kennedy's legacy and pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended discrimination in all public forums based on race, color, religion, and national origin. Public accommodations included housing, entertainment, hotels, eating...