Civil Rights Act of 1964

Legislation

By: Everett Dirksen

Date: July 2, 1964

Source: "Civil Rights Act of 1964." Pub. L. No. 88-352, 78. 2 July 1964. Stat.

About the Author: Republican Senator Everett Dirksen represented the state of Illinois from 1950 until his death in 1969. Elected Senate Minority Leader in 1959, he worked with Lyndon Johnson in the Senate and later with President Johnson in crafting the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

INTRODUCTION

The 1954 United States Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education began the slow but steady path toward desegregated public schools nationwide. Segregation in public settings in the United States—especially the southern states that comprised the former Confederacy—was still a fact of life for black Americans into the 1960s. "Jim Crow" laws, enacted in the late nineteenth century, dictated a strict "color line"—a division of the use of physical facilities and access to services for black and white people in the United States.

Black people living or traveling in the South faced "whites only" sections in restaurants—if they could enter the restaurant at all, segregated drinking fountains, prohibitions on sleeping in hotels, and were often banned from restrooms—even if no other option existed. Medical facilities and ambulances were segregated as well. Real estate agents could—by law—refuse to show homes in "white" neighborhoods to prospective black buyers, and landlords could reject applicants based on race.

Although John F. Kennedy' election to the presidency in1960 initially filled civil rights leaders with hope, by 1963 they expressed concern that he was not doing enough to advance race relations. On June 11, 1963, the president announced his commitment to enforcing the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, and his determination to advance civil rights despite protests that included threats, violence, and at times even murder.

Following Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963, Vice-President Lyndon Johnson assumed the presidency and declared that he would continue Kennedy's push for sweeping civil rights legislation. The 1964 Civil Rights Act passed the House by a 290- 130 vote. In spite of serious political problems with southern senators such as South Carolina's Strom Thurmond, the act passed the Senate by a 73-27 vote. The House then approved the Senate version 289-126.

PRIMARY SOURCE

TITLE II—INJUNCTIVE RELIEF AGAINST DISCRIMINATION IN PLACES OF PUBLIC ACCOMMODATION

(a) All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, and privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, as defined in this section, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin.

(b) Each of the following establishments which serves the public is a place of public accommodation within the meaning of this title if its operations affect commerce, or if discrimination or segregation by it is supported by State action:

(1) any inn, hotel, motel, or other establishment which provides lodging to transient guests, other than an establishment located within a building which contains not more than five rooms for rent or hire and which is actually occupied by the proprietor of such establishment as his residence;

(2) any restaurant, cafeteria, lunchroom, lunch counter, soda fountain, or other facility principally engaged in selling food for consumption on the premises, including, but not limited to, any such facility located on the premises of any retail establishment; or any gasoline station;

(3) any motion picture house, theater, concert hall, sports arena, stadium or other place of exhibition or entertainment; and

(4) any establishment (A)(i) which is physically located within the premises of any establishment otherwise covered by this subsection, or (ii) within the premises of which is physically located any such covered establishment, and (B) which holds itself out as serving patrons of such covered establishment.

(c) The operations of an establishment affect commerce within the meaning of this title if (1) it is one of the establishments described in paragraph (1) of subsection (b); (2) in the case of an establishment described in paragraph (2) of subsection (b), it serves or offers to serve interstate travelers or a substantial portion of the food which it serves, or gasoline or other products which it sells, has moved in commerce; (3) in the case of an establishment described in paragraph (3) of subsection (b), it customarily presents films, performances, athletic teams, exhibitions, or other sources of entertainment which move in commerce; and (4) in the case of an establishment described in paragraph (4) of subsection (b), it is physically located within the premises of, or there is physically located within its premises, an establishment the operations of which affect commerce within the meaning of this subsection. For purposes of this section, "commerce" means travel, trade, traffic, commerce, transportation, or communication among the several States, or between the District of Columbia and any State, or between any foreign country or any territory or possession and any State or the District of Columbia, or between points in the same State but through any other State or the District of Columbia or a foreign country.

(d) Discrimination or segregation by an establishment is supported by State action within the meaning of this title if such discrimination or segregation (1) is carried on under color of any law, statute, ordinance, or regulation; or (2) is carried on under color of any custom or usage required or enforced by officials of the State or political subdivision thereof; or (3) is required by action of the State or political subdivision thereof.

(e) The provisions of this title shall not apply to a private club or other establishment not in fact open to the public, except to the extent that the facilities of such establishment are made available to the customers or patrons of an establishment within the scope of subsection (b).

SEC. 202. All persons shall be entitled to be free, at any establishment or place, from discrimination or segregation of any kind on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin, if such discrimination or segregation is or purports to be required by any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, rule, or order of a State or any agency or political subdivision thereof….

TITLE III—DESEGREGATION OF PUBLIC FACILITIES

(a) Whenever the Attorney General receives a complaint in writing signed by an individual to the effect that he is being deprived of or threatened with the loss of his right to the equal protection of the laws, on account of his race, color, religion, or national origin, by being denied equal utilization of any public facility which is owned, operated, or managed by or on behalf of any State or subdivision thereof, other than a public school or public college as defined in section 401 of title IV hereof, and the Attorney General believes the complaint is meritorious and certifies that the signer or signers of such complaint are unable, in his judgment, to initiate and maintain appropriate legal proceedings for relief and that the institution of an action will materially further the orderly progress of desegregation in public facilities, the Attorney General is authorized to institute for or in the name of the United States a civil action in any appropriate district court of the United States against such parties and for such relief as may be appropriate, and such court shall have and shall exercise jurisdiction of proceedings instituted pursuant to this section. The Attorney General may implead as defendants such additional parties as are or become necessary to the grant of effective relief hereunder.

(b) The Attorney General may deem a person or persons unable to initiate and maintain appropriate legal proceedings within the meaning of subsection (a) of this section when such person or persons are unable, either directly or through other interested persons or organizations, to bear the expense of the litigation or to obtain effective legal representation; or whenever he is satisfied that the institution of such litigation would jeopardize the personal safety, employment, or economic standing of such person or persons, their families, or their property.

SEC. 302. In any action or proceeding under this title the United States shall be liable for costs, including a reasonable attorney's fee, the same as a private person.

SEC. 303. Nothing in this title shall affect adversely the right of any person to sue for or obtain relief in any court against discrimination in any facility covered by this title.

TITLE IV—DESEGREGATION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION DEFINITIONS

As used in this title—

(a) "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Education.

(b) "Desegregation" means the assignment of students to public schools and within such schools without regard to their race, color, religion, or national origin, but "desegregation" shall not mean the assignment of students to public schools in order to overcome racial imbalance.

(c) "Public school" means any elementary or secondary educational institution, and "public college" means any institution of higher education or any technical or vocational school above the secondary school level, provided that such public school or public college is operated by a State, subdivision of a State, or governmental agency within a State, or operated wholly or predominantly from or through the use of governmental funds or property, or funds or property derived from a governmental source.

(d) "School board" means any agency or agencies which administer a system of one or more public schools and any other agency which is responsible for the assignment of students to or within such system.

SIGNIFICANCE

Southern Democrats spent eighty-three days filibustering the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In the end it passed with overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress. The act protects Americans from race- and gender-based discrimination; Representative Howard W. Smith added this prohibition in spite of his opposition to civil rights for blacks. This act divided parties along geographic lines; Johnson knew going into the battle that he could cause damage to his own party, the Democrats, which had been opposed to broader rights for African Americans since the post-Civil War period, when Democrats often backed Ku Klux Klan activities and suppressed the black vote.

The 1964 Civil Rights act mandated desegregation in all public schools and approved federal power to enforce it; desegregation of all public venues such as restaurants, theaters, public transportation, rest-rooms, drinking fountains, gas stations, hotels, and sporting arenas. In addition, the act prohibited discrimination on the basis of "race, color, religion, or national origin" as well as sex. The act strengthened voter rights, but did not abolish such roadblocks as literacy tests for African Americans. Congress went on to remove such obstacles with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Worker protection, backed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, was a central part of the 1964 legislation as well. By granting the ability to file grievances and lawsuits against companies that violated the new law, African Americans and women legally gained standing in the courts when faced with labor discrimination.

The act invalidated a wide range of Jim Crow laws overnight and passed the Supreme Court test of constitutionality. Discrimination in government, education, employment, public accommodations, and housing became a federal crime. But society did not change so quickly, and enforcement often involved federal authority to gain compliance, part of a slow shift toward greater freedoms for African Americans and women.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Dudziak, Mary L. Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2002.

Klarman, Michael J. From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality. Oxford University Press, USA, 2004.

Rosenberg, Jonathan, and Zachary Karabell. Kennedy, Johnson, and the Quest for Justice: The Civil Rights Tapes. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003.

Web sites

John F. Kennedy Library and Museum. "Radio and Television Report to the American People on Civil Rights." ?http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Speeches/JFK/003POF03CivilRights06111963.htm? (accessed April 9, 2006).