Civil Rights In The 1960s

John Andrews identifies the changing attitudes of the white Americans as the main reason the civil rights in the 1960s did not progress. He claims that as the cause started shifting from civil rights to race, the white Americans began to become more fearful and therefore began to oppose the measures being taken. The loss of support is evident as in February 1964, the Gallup poll showed that 61% of the public favoured the passage of the civil rights bill . But, by 1966, 90% opposed new civil rights legislations with 88% of white Americans calling for ‘black self-improvement, more education and harder work, rather than government help’ . This break down in the civil rights consensus would have had a negative impact on Johnson civil rights record
This implies that the growing opposition failed to allow stronger legislations to be passed. Furthermore, the white backlash led to the 89th Congress – who passed the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts - rejecting the civil right bill in 1966. The bill aimed to deal with the issue of racial preference including housing, education and employment. This highlights the fact the white Americans were not willing to support the legislations which they felt would attack their own individual rights. Doris Kearns stresses this when she states that ‘Once it became apparent that more jobs for blacks meant less jobs for white….that welfare reform meant redistributing income.’ , people became less willing to cooperate. This indicates that the white opposition harmed the civil rights efforts because Johnson would have not been able to pass affirmative actions to close the gap between the black and white Americans without facing a huge
The Voting Rights Act aimed to close the loopholes which enabled the South to stop the black Americans from registering to vote. It was able to do this by making the use of literacy tests or other devices that may have been used. Alongside with this, it enabled the Attorney general to place federal voting examiners in areas where less than 50% of its voting-age populations were registered to vote or actually able to vote. This was significant in helping the civil rights effort because it gave the black Americans the real political power. Andrew describes the 1964 Civil Rights Act as ‘the most effective countermeasure to Southern resistance to integration’ because it was able to abolish the Jim Crow laws. This was important because it meant that by law, blacks and white Americans were equal. The passages of both Acts were important because they had ‘open[ed] the gates of opportunity’ for black Americans. However, he – to some extent – then questions the impact they had as he mentions that the Acts were criticised by civil rights activists for not being revolutionary. This was due to the fact, they only reinforced the laws passed in the 14th Amendments and in the Bill of