The Civil Rights Act of 1964 Essay -- Civil Rights, Segregation, Equal

Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, segregation in the United States was commonly practiced in many of the southerly and Border States. This segregation while supposed to be separate and personify, was hardly that. Blacks in the South were discriminated against repeatedly while laws did nothing to protect their case-by-case rights. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ridded the earth of this legal segregation and cle ard a path towards equality and integration. The passage of this Act, while forever altering the relationship amidst blacks and whites, remains as one of historys greatest political battles. Racial unrest by the summer of 1963 was at its height since the Civil War. chairperson Kennedy picked up the situation at the close of the Eisenhower years at a time when tensions were rapidly increasing. By the summer of 1963, however, after a series of cherry-red demonstrations in the South, particularly in Birmingham, Alabama, President Kennedy pushed for a ver y strong civil rights bill in Congress. The first of its kind since the Civil War, this bill drastically called for the end of all segregation in all public places. In the eyes of the civil rights movement leaders, this bill was long over due. Kennedys force began slowly to the dismay of many civil rights leaders in February of 1963. He began by sending the United States Congress a Special Message on Civil Rights, stating,Our Constitution is color blind, ...but the practices of the country do not always conform to the principles of the Constitution... Equality before the law has not always meant equal sermon and opportunity. And the harmful, wasteful and wrongful results of racial discrimination and segregation still appear in virtually either aspect of national life, in virtually every part of the nation (Loevy, 5).Kennedy received praise for these strong and moving words yet was criticized for his weak legislative proposals to remedy the situation. By May of 1963, his propo sal would transpose greatly however, after two men, from opposite positions set the civil rights movement into intense motion. Martin Luther King despite advice to do otherwise began massive protests in the alley of Birmingham. To combat these protests, Police Commissioner Bull Conner used any means, including dogs, fire hoses, and electric cattle prods on protestors. Making newspapers and televi... ...tates on a social level but politically too. This bill set the precedent for using a cloture to stop a filibuster in the Senate. Similar cloture votes in 1966 and 1968, with bills for equal voting rights and guaranteed equal housing respectively were used to stop Southern filibusters. The Civil Rights Act also proved that mass demonstration and peaceful protesting are heard in Washington D.C. Martin Luther King and the Leadership Conference started with nothing and achieved everything. From the segregated South those who fought for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 changed the course of American history and ridded the nation of inequality under the law. Works CitedBerman, Daniel M., A Bill Becomes a Law, The Macmillan company, New York 1966.Levy, Peter B., The Civil RIghts Movement, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1998. Web. 24 June 2015.https//www.questia.com/read/10045885/the-civil-rights-movementLoeby, Robert D.,To End All Segregation, University Press of America, physician 1990.Whalen, Charles and Barbara, The Longest Debate, Seven Locks Press, Washington D.C.1985. Web. 3 July 2015.http//www.jstor.org/stable/27550291?seq=1page_scan_tab_contents