The 1964 Civil Rights Act

This law was passed by the US Senate 43 years ago

today (thank you, Jennifer Hodges, for bringing it to my

attention) after the longest filibuster in Senate history.

It took a lot of doing for this piece of legislation to

emerge, as I discovered reading the legislative history

earlier today. I know a few on the POLITICS list still

believe the law to be unconstitutional, although

SCOTUS doesn't agree with them.

As I perused the history of civil rights laws, I was not

aware that Congress had passed five laws between

1866 and 1875 to implement the 14th and 15th

Amendments, although I did know that they had

passed a Civil Rights law in 1875 (that the Supreme

Court found to be unconstitutional in 1883). Jim Crow

prevailed after the election of Rutherford B. Hayes in

1876, and the withdrawal of Federal troops from the

South at that time, until the first crack in the Southern

domination of racial policy in the whole of the country

occurred in 1954 with Brown v. Topeka Board of

Education. The Birmingham Bus Boycott of 1955, the

Greensboro sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, the Little Rock

High School integration in 1956, the March on

Washington and MLK"s "I Have a Dream" speech in

August of 1963 were all benchmarks along the way

to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting

Rights Act.

JFK, albeit reluctantly, called for civil rights legislation

before his assassination, but Southern Democrats

blocked consideration in his lifetime. After his death,

LBJ lobbied Congress hard to pass a civil rights bill

that went further than the two tepid laws without

teeth passed in 1957 and 1960.

This law was perhaps the hardest fought over piece

of legislation of the 20th century. 83 actual days, 57

legislative days were spent by the US Senate in

filibuster in an attempt to defeat a bill passed by the

House 290-130 on 10 February, 1964. On 10 June,

after 730 hours of actual debate, and 3,000 pages of

documents offered in support or opposition to the bill,

the 19 who were most opposed (18 Democrats and

1 Republican - John Tower) gave up the fight, and the

Senate voted 71-29 to end debate on 10 June. After

amendments, the Senate voted 73-27 on 19 June to

pass the bill (21 Democrats and 6 Republicans voted

against it). In conference, the House re-voted 289-126

to pass it, and it went to LBJ on 2 July, 1964 and was

signed the same day.

The law didn't give everybody everything. Women still

complain that it didn't address discriminatory pay (which

still occurs). Indians didn't feel like it gave them enough

protection. But, the law banned discrimination in hiring,

firing, education, promotions, public accommodations and

most areas of employment. I tell my students that this

law was the beginning of a real equalization in American 

society, even though I'm the first to acknowledge that

racism and sexism, ethnic and religious hatreds still exist,

perhaps even abound in some parts of the country.

But, I believe this law, and the subsequent Voting Rights

Act of the following year, dropped a great many barriers

that had truly existed for all those considered "minorities"

in law, including women despite the fact that they are a

slight majority in the population. Almost all law is flawed,

and this one probably is, but it shattered the segregation

behaviors of almost one hundred years, and opened access

to protection from discriminatory behavior to almost every

minority then identified in the law (except gays, that

movement arose later).

Those who would decry the law, or wish to hang on to the

racist past, are themselves now a minority after being able

to oppress those of color or difference for a few hundred

years. I'm sorry that such hatreds still exist, or such

resistance to accepted law still prevails in some minds.

But, this writer believes that the 1964 Civil Rights Act was

a necessary step forward for the United States to make

for the whole society. VMS

19 June, 2007