Civil War Acts

-The 1964 Civil Rights Act was a landmark in legislative attempts to improve the quality of life for African Americans and other minority groups.

- The 1960's marked a period of intense activity by the federal government to protect monitory rights

-The act did not resolve all problems of discrimination but it opened the door to further progress by lessing racial restrictions on the se of public facilities, providing more job opportunities, strengthening voting laws and limiting federal funding of discriminatory aid programs

- 13th, 14th and 15th amendments outlawed slavery, provided for equal protection under the law, guaranteed citizenship, and protected the right to vote for african american americans.

- the supreme court joined the civil rights forces in the 150s and in the process added to the historical pressure for sweeping legislation a decade later

- In Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, the supreme court struck down the legal support for maintaining separate but equal education facilities; the brown decision menthe that white and african american children could not be forced to attend separate public schools

- the Supreme Court s landmark decision was one of the single most important features of the climate of opinion that began to encourage federal action to protect civil rights

-Yet the Brown ruling did not settle the controversy surrounding the treatment of minorities in the United States. Although the Supreme Court made its commitment to equal rights unmistakably clear, the cause of civil rights still required affirmative action by Congress to become a reality for most African Americans.

-The United States Congress began to take its first, tentative steps to enact major civil rights legislation soon after the Brown decision. Although Congress considered a civil rights bill each year from 1945 until 1957, every measure failed to pass into law.

-Although political pressures prevented President John F. Kennedy's... [continues]

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