Civil Rights Act Research Paper

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On July 2, 1964 the Civil Rights Act was made law. It was a landmark piece of legislation in the Untied States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against blacks and women, including racial segregation. In schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public ended in unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation. Powers that were given to enforce the act were initially weak, but were supplemented during later years, Congress stated its authority to legislate under several different parts of the Untied States Constitution, principally its power to regulate interstate commerce under Article One, 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. John F. Kennedy, who was president at the time asked in his Civil Rights speech on June 11, 1963 that “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 he also asked for “greater protection for the right to vote.” Imitating the Civil Rights Act of 1875, Kennedy's civil rights bill included changes to ban discrimination in…show more content…
Until then, the measure had occupied the Senate for 57 working days, including six Saturdays. A day earlier, Democratic Whip Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, the bill's manager, concluded he had the 67 votes required at that time to end the debate and end the filibuster. With six wavering senators providing a four-vote victory margin, the final tally stood at 71 to 29. Never in history had the Senate been able to muster enough votes to cut off a filibuster on a civil rights bill. And only once in the 37 years since 1927 had it agreed to cloture for any

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