The Civil Rights Act

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was indicator legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin, but the issue that would be the main focus of this paper would be the issue on race and color. Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, segregation in the United States was commonly practiced in many of the southern states and Border States. 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. As we can see this Act arose in the name of racial discrimination and other forms of discrimination.

The Issue was addressed by the president who was John F. Kennedy; he was the one who argued for a new Civil Rights Act. In a speech he gave out he said: “We preach freedom around the world, and we meant it. And we cherish our freedom here at home. But are we to say to the world- and as much more importantly to each other- that this is the land of the free, except for the Negroes; that we have no second-class citizen, except Negroes; that we have no class or caste system, no ghettos, no master race, except with respect to Negroes.”(11th June, 1963) Unfortunately, the Kennedy’s Civil Rights bill was being pondered upon when he was assassinated in 1963. However the president after him, Lyndon Baines Johnson, further looked in the matter and tried as much as he could to wrap up the unfinished problem. It wasn’t until in 1964 that the vote on the bill won. The policy was adopted in that year and made racial discrimination in public places illegal. Projects involving federal funds could now be cut off if there was evidence of discrimination based on race or color.

The civil Right Act 0f 1964 has had a huge impact on various issue especially the removal of racial barriers to educational opportunity. The dropout rate of African American students declined from 20.5 percent in 1976 to 13.0 percent in 1996; High school graduation rates among African Americans have increased substantially in the past 20 years