Civil Rights Act

(noun)

A U.S. federal law (14 Stat. 27) enacted April 9, 1866, that was mainly intended to protect the civil rights of African Americans in the wake of the American Civil War.

Related Terms

Examples of Civil Rights Act in the following topics:

  • Civil Rights and Voting Rights

    • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were landmark pieces of legislation that addressed major forms of discrimination.
    • The Civil Rights Act of 1964, enacted on July 2, 1964, was a landmark piece of legislation.
    • Kennedy called for a civil rights act in his speech about civil rights on June 11, 1963.
    • The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act changed the lives of African Americans and transformed society in many ways.
    • Examine the passage and significance of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

  • Legislative Change

    • The Civil Rights Act of 1957, primarily a voting rights bill, was the first civil rights legislation enacted by Congress in the United States since the Reconstruction Era following the American Civil War.
    • The Civil Rights Act of 1960 addressed some of the shortcomings of the 1957 act.
    • The act was later deemed ineffective for the firm establishment of civil rights.
    • Johnson helped secure passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
    • Analyze the gains and limitations of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, and 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

  • Conclusion: Change in the 1960s

    • The African American civil rights movement made significant progress in the 1960s.
    • While Congress played a role by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, the actions of civil rights groups were instrumental in forging new paths, pioneering new techniques and strategies, and achieving breakthrough successes.
    • Civil rights activists engaged in sit-ins, freedom rides, and protest marches, and registered African American voters.
    • The Mexican American civil rights movement, led largely by Cesar Chavez, also made significant progress at this time.
    • His social programs, investments in education, support for the arts, and commitment to civil rights changed the lives of countless people and transformed society in many ways.

  • The Emergence of the Civil Rights Movement

    • The 1950s and the 1960s witnessed a dramatic development of the Civil Rights Movement that at the time accomplished a series of its goals through the acts of civil disobedience, legal battles, and promoting the notion of Black Power.
    • By highlighting racial injustice in the South, they contributed to passage that year of the Voting Rights Act, a landmark federal achievement of the Civil Rights Movement.
    • The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which restored and protected voting rights.
    • Department of Justice, the Act is considered to be the most effective piece of civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country.
    • The Fair Housing Act of 1968 (known also as the Civil Rights Act of 1968), which banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.

  • The Expansion of the Civil Rights Movement

    • While Congress played a role by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, the actions of civil rights groups such as CORE, the SCLC, and SNCC were instrumental in forging new paths, pioneering new techniques and strategies, and achieving breakthrough successes.
    • The key civil rights events of the 1950s (Brown v.
    • Its purpose was to pressure President Kennedy to act on his promises regarding civil rights.
    • The passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations.
    • The Voting Rights Act of 1965 restored and protected voting rights for African Americans that had been imposed upon since the Civil War, and the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965 dramatically opened up entry into the U.S. for immigrants outside of traditional European groups.

  • Federal Intervention

    • Kennedy verbally supported racial integration and civil rights in many instances.
    • Robert Kennedy replied, "Civil Rights."
    • Robert Kennedy saw voting as the key to racial justice, and collaborated with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson to create the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which helped bring an end to Jim Crow laws.
    • Kennedy would not live to see his bill enacted; however, it would become law during Lyndon Johnson’s administration as the 1964 Civil Rights Act. 
    • Robert Kennedy demonstrated federal support for the civil rights movement.

  • The Radical Record

    • By 1866, the Radical Republicans supported federal civil rights for freedmen, which President Johnson opposed.
    • Congress later passed the Civil Rights Bill.
    • Although strongly urged by moderates in Congress to sign the Civil Rights Bill, Johnson broke decisively with them by vetoing it on March 27, 1866.
    • Then, the Civil Rights Bill became law.
    • For instance, the Fourteenth Amendment, whose principal drafter was John Bingham, was designed to put the key provisions of the Civil Rights Act into the Constitution.

  • Martin Luther King, Jr.

    • Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement.
    • The Poor People's Campaign was controversial even within the Civil Rights Movement.
    • King's main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the U.S.
    • Just days after King's assassination, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1968. 
    • Veteran African-American civil rights activist Bayard Rustin was King's first regular advisor on nonviolence.

  • The Flowering of Black Freedom Struggle

    • Speakers included all six civil-rights leaders of the major activist organizations.
    • The march was not universally supported among civil rights activists.
    • Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which suspended poll taxes, literacy tests, and other subjective voter tests.
    • When Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, only about 100 African Americans held elective office, all in northern states of the U.S.
    • Outline major events in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s

  • Civil Liberties in Wartime

    • Congress used the Espionage and Sedition Acts to stamp out war opposition by curbing civil liberties.
    • One of the first victims of nearly every American war is the First Amendment, which guarantees civil liberties encompassing some of our most essential democratic freedoms.
    • The Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 temporarily trumped Americans' rights to religious freedom and to freely speak, publish, or petition the government.
    • Ohio in 1969, make it unlikely that similar legislation restricting civil liberties would be considered constitutional today.
    • Critique the Alien, Sedition, and Espionage Acts in terms of their effects on civil liberties.