The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. 88–352, 78 Stat. 241, enacted July 2, 1964) is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, and later sexual orientation.[a][4] It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requirements, racial segregation in schools and public accommodations, and employment discrimination.

Civil Rights Act of 1964
Great Seal of the United States
Long title
An Act to enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States of America to provide injunctive relief against discrimination in public accommodations, to authorize the Attorney General to institute suits to protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights, to prevent discrimination in federally assisted programs, to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, and for other purposes.
Enacted by
the 88th United States Congress
Effective
July 2, 1964
Citations
Public law
88-352
Statutes at Large
78 Stat. 241
Codification
Acts amended
Civil Rights Act of 1957
Civil Rights Act of 1960
Titles amended
Title 42—Public Health And Welfare
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 7152 by Emanuel Celler (D–NY) on June 20, 1963
Committee consideration by Judiciary
Passed the House on February 10, 1964[1] (290–130)
Passed the Senate on June 19, 1964[2] (73–27) with amendment
House agreed to Senate amendment on July 2, 1964[3] (289–126)
Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964
Major amendments
Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972
Pregnancy Discrimination Act
Civil Rights Act of 1991
No Child Left Behind Act
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009
United States Supreme Court cases
See section U.S. Supreme Court cases
Initially, powers given to enforce the act were weak, but these were supplemented during later years. Congress asserted its authority to legislate under several different parts of the United States Constitution, principally its power to regulate interstate commerce under Article One (section 8), its duty to guarantee all citizens equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment, and its duty to protect voting rights under the Fifteenth Amendment.

The legislation had been proposed by President John F. Kennedy in June 1963, but it was opposed by filibuster in the Senate. After Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed the bill forward. The United States House of Representatives passed the bill on February 10, 1964, and after a 54-day filibuster, it passed the United States Senate on June 19, 1964. The final vote was 290–130 in the House of Representatives and 73–27 in the Senate.[5] After the House agreed to a subsequent Senate amendment, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law by President Johnson at the White House on July 2, 1964.

Contents
Background Edit

United States President John F. Kennedy addresses the nation on civil rights on June 11, 1963

Following the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, civil rights leaders meet with President Kennedy and Vice President Johnson to discuss civil rights legislation
In the 1883 landmark Civil Rights Cases, the United States Supreme Court had ruled that Congress did not have the power to prohibit discrimination in the private sector, thus stripping the Civil Rights Act of 1875 of much of its ability to protect civil rights.[6]

In the late 19th and early 20th century, the legal justification for voiding the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was part of a larger trend by members of the United States Supreme Court to invalidate most government regulations of the private sector, except when dealing with laws designed to protect traditional public morality.

In the 1930s, during the New Deal, the majority of the Supreme Court justices gradually shifted their legal theory to allow for greater government regulation of the private sector under the commerce clause, thus paving the way for the Federal government to enact civil rights laws prohibiting both public and private sector discrimination on the basis of the commerce clause.

The 1964 bill was first proposed by United States President John F. Kennedy in his Report to the American People on Civil Rights on June 11, 1963.[7] Kennedy sought legislation "giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public—hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments"—as well as "greater protection for the right to vote". Kennedy delivered this speech in the aftermath of the Birmingham campaign and the growing number of demonstrations and protests throughout the southern United States. Kennedy was moved to action following the elevated racial tensions and wave of African-American protests in the spring of 1963.[8] In late July, according to a New York Times article, Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers, warned that if Congress failed to pass President Kennedy's civil rights bill, the country would face another civil war.[9]

Following the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, on August 28, 1963, the organizers visited President Kennedy to discuss the civil rights bill.[10] Roy Wilkins, A. Philip Randolph, and Walter Reuther attempted to persuade Kennedy to support a provision establishing a Fair Employment Practices Commission that would have banned discriminatory practices by all federal agencies, unions, and private companies.[10]

Emulating the Civil Rights Act of 1875, Kennedy's civil rights bill included provisions to ban discrimination in public accommodations, and to enable the U.S. Attorney General to join in lawsuits against state governments which operated segregated school systems, among other provisions. However, it did not include a number of provisions deemed essential by civil rights leaders, including protection against police brutality, ending discrimination in private employment, or granting the Justice Department power to initiate desegregation or job discrimination lawsuits.[11]

Civil right act was a movement which was done for the justice for African-Americans as they were discriminated because of their dark complexion.The way they were discriminated was that if in a bus or train,there was an African American sitting in one seat and at the same time there appeared a white complexion man, wanted to take seat for himself, the African Americans had to give seat to him. This was a very huge discrimination and one day the a voice called up for this. It was a African American women named Rosa parks who was sitting in a bus and was tired after the whole day work and refused to give her seat to a white man. By this several African Americans people came up for the justice and the Civil right movement launched to give justice and equality to these people.