Familiar with The Civil Rights Act of 1964? You should be!
You’ve more than likely heard of the Civil Rights Act, but do you know what it outlawed? As a school administrator you will want to be familiar with this important law.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, required equal access to public places and employment, and enforced desegregation of schools.
The Act was first proposed by President John F. Kennedy, and was later signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson.
Every year, from 1945 until 1957, Congress considered and failed to pass a civil rights bill. Congress did pass Civil Rights Acts in 1957 and 1960. A result of the 1957 Act, was the formation of the United States Commission on Civil Rights whose purpose was to investigate, report on, and make recommendations to the President regarding civil rights issues.
Kennedy responded to a report from this commission proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1963 in June of that year. He said the United States “will not be fully free until all of its citizens are free.” Although Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. and Lyndon B. Johnson pressed for passage of the bill Kennedy had introduced.
The House of Representatives debated this bill for nine days. Their debate included rejection of almost 100 amendments. There were 70 days of public hearings including 275 witness appearances and 5,792 pages of published testimony.
You can relate to being responsible for creating copious amounts of documentation!
The bill was passed by the House on February 10, 1964. Senate opponents of the bill began the longest filibuster in American history, lasting 57 days. Johnson signed the Act into law on July 2, 1964.
If you’d like to learn how to investigate complaints of discrimination and harassment, click on this link.
