Civil Rights Act Of 1964 Research Paper

In this paper, I will focus on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I will provide the history, the important people involved in the establishment of the Civil Rights Act, the events that led to the act, and the reactions from the people, mostly Southerners, after the act was established. In the year of 1963, Blacks were experiencing high racial injustice and widespread violence was inflicted upon them. The outcry of the harsh treatments inflicted upon them caused Kennedy to propose the Civil Rights Act. Civil Rights was the nation’s biggest domestic issue and was effecting the nation in many ways. Movie theaters banned black people such as Jesse Jackson, saying that they were not allowed to watch movies with the Whites. Kennedy delivered a speech

This act did not put an end to discrimination but opened doors to further progress. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was first proposed on June 11, 1963, by President John F. Kennedy and proceeded all the way to the rules committee. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy’s vision of the future and his hope to end African American segregation ended when was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Civil Rights were needed in the United States but most civil rights leaders were frightened that the death of Kennedy would put an end to the movement to equality. Following his death, his successor Lyndon B. Johnson had a choice to make, that choice was to make African Americans equal in their own states and push the bill through

Johnson participates in a joint-session with Congress advocating strongly for the Civil Rights legislation, mentioning the eulogy of J.F.K.’s presidency. Johnson’s aggressiveness with mentioning Kennedy’s power when he was president helped to push the legislation but there was still a lot of work to do. The House of Representatives wrote a “petition of discharge” trying to skip over the rules committee and what they had on their agenda. The rules committee which was headed by Howard W. Smith, was publicly supported. To avoid public embarrassment, Smith pushed the legislation through the rules committee himself. Democratic James Eastland, the senator from Mississippi, who oversaw the Judiciary Committee, also was against this legislation. Also against the legislation was senator of West Virginia, Robert Byrd, who stood for 14 hours trying to wipe out the process of the legislation, stating that it was tranny and Radical Republicanism. Senator Richard Russel of Georgia was also against the civil rights bill. There we 19 senators on the Southern block, 18 of them all being Democrats but still opposing the Civil Rights