THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1957
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. It was also Congress's show of support for the Supreme Court's decisions in the Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional. Following the Supreme Court ruling, white Southerners in Virginia began a "Massive Resistance" - a strategy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. of Virginia along with his brother-in-law as the leader in the Virginia General Assembly, Democrat Delegate James M. Thomson of Alexandria, to unite white politicians and leaders in Virginia in a campaign of new state laws and policies to prevent public school desegregation. Violence against African Americans rose. For example, in 1957 President Dwight D. Eisenhower had ordered in federal troops to protect nine children integrating into a public school in Little Rock, Arkansas, the first time the federal government had sent troops to the South since the Reconstruction era. There had been continued physical assaults against suspected activists and bombings of schools and churches in the South.
The goal of the 1957 Civil Rights Act was to ensure that all Americans could exercise their right to vote. By 1957, only about 20% of African Americans were registered to vote. Despite comprising the majority population in numerous counties and Congressional districts in the South, discriminatory voter registration rules and laws had effectively disfranchised most black Americans in those states since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Civil rights organizations had collected evidence of discriminatory practices, such as administration of literacy and comprehension tests, poll taxes, and other means. The law, which focused exclusively on voting rights, set up a six-member Civil Rights Commission in the Executive Branch to gather information on deprivation of citizens' voting rights based on color, race, religion or national origin, legal background, and laws and policies of the federal government. It was set up to take testimony or written complaints from individuals about difficulties in registering and voting.
Although passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 seemed to indicate a growing federal commitment to the cause of civil rights, the legislation was limited. Because of the ways in which it had been changed, the government had difficulty enforcing it. By 1960, black voting had only increased by 3%. However, the passage of the bill showed the willingness of national leaders to support, to varying degrees, the cause of civil rights.
THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1960
The Civil Rights Act of 1960 addressed some of the shortcomings of the 1957 act. It expanded the authority of federal judges to protect voting rights. It required local authorities to maintain comprehensive voting records for review, so that the government could determine if there were patterns of discrimination against certain populations. The act was later deemed ineffective for the firm establishment of civil rights. The later legislation had firmer ground for the enforcement and protection of a variety of civil rights, where the acts of 1957 and 1960 were largely limited to voting rights. The 1960 law dealt with race and color but omitted coverage of those discriminated against for national origin, although Eisenhower had called for it in his message to Congress.
THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
The Civil Rights Movement continued to expand, with protesters leading nonviolent demonstrations to mark their cause. President John F. Kennedy called for a new bill in his civil rights speech on June 11, 1963, in which he asked for legislation "giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public—hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments," as well as "greater protection for the right to vote. " Kennedy delivered this speech following a series of protests from the African-American community, the most concurrent being the Birmingham campaign, which concluded in May 1963.
In the summer of 1963, various parts of the civil rights movement collaborated to run voter education and voter registration drives in Mississippi. During Freedom Summer in 1964, hundreds of students from the North went there to participate in voter drives and community organizing. The media coverage and violent backlash, with the murders of three civil rights workers near Philadelphia, Mississippi, contributed to national support for civil rights legislation.
After Kennedy's assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson helped secure passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The act remains a landmark piece of civil rights legislation that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public (known as "public accommodations"). Powers given to enforce the act were initially weak, but were supplemented during later years. Congress asserted its authority to legislate under several different parts of the United States Constitution, principally its power to regulate interstate commerce under Article One (section 8), its duty to guarantee all citizens equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment and its duty to protect voting rights under the Fifteenth Amendment. The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964, at the White House.
Just one year prior, the same Congress had passed the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which prohibited wage differentials based on sex. The prohibition on sex discrimination was added to the Civil Rights Act by Howard W. Smith, a powerful Virginia Democrat who chaired the House Rules Committee and who strongly opposed the legislation. Smith's amendment was passed by a teller vote of 168 to 133. Historians debate Smith's motivation, whether it was a cynical attempt to defeat the bill by someone opposed to both civil rights for African Americans and women, or an attempt to support their rights by broadening the bill to include women. Historians speculate that Smith was trying to embarrass northern Democrats who opposed civil rights for women because the clause was opposed by labor unions.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X at the United States Capitol on March 26, 1964.
Both men came to the Capitol to hear the Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That was the only time the two ever met. Their meeting lasted only one minute.
THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965
In January 1965, civil rights leaders organized several demonstrations in Selma that led to violent clashes with police. These marches received national media coverage and drew attention to the issue of voting rights. With the nation paying increasing attention to Selma and voting rights, President Johnson reversed his decision to delay voting rights legislation, and on February 6, he announced he would send a proposal to Congress.
On February 18 in Marion, Alabama, state troopers violently broke up a nighttime voting-rights march during which officer James Bonard Fowler shot and killed young African-American protester Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was unarmed and protecting his mother. Spurred by this event, and at the initiation of Bevel, on March 7 SCLC and SNCC began the Selma to Montgomery marches in which Selma residents proceeded to march to Alabama's capital, Montgomery, to highlight voting rights issues and present Governor George Wallace with their grievances. In the wake of the events in Selma, President Johnson called on legislators to enact expansive voting rights legislation.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was introduced in Congress two days later while civil rights leaders, now under the protection of federal troops, led a march of 25,000 people from Selma to Montgomery. The Act prohibited racial discrimination in voting and Congress later amended the Act five times to expand its protections. Designed to enforce the voting rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Act secured voting rights for racial minorities throughout the country, especially in the South. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Act is considered to be the most effective piece of civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country. After its enactment, the law immediately decreased racial discrimination in voting. The suspension of literacy tests and assignments of federal examiners and observers allowed for high numbers of racial minorities to register to vote.
Alabama police in 1965 attack voting rights marchers participating in the first of the Selma to Montgomery marches, which became known as "Bloody Sunday."
With the nation paying increasing attention to Selma and voting rights, President Johnson reversed announced he would send a proposal of voting rights legislation to Congress.