Civil Rights Act of 1964

Civil Rights Acts of 1964



Civil Rights Act of 1964

US Society before Civil Rights Acts of 1964

During the fifties in U.S, there was an origination of a new movement for civil rights. The success of the protests that were taking black during World War II improved its economic and social situation and also tended to smooth relations. However, despite the achievements, blacks continued to occupy the lowest layer of prosperous American society and continued to be victims of racist actions in education, transport, residential neighborhoods, at work, in business in restaurants, public places and in the practice of their voting rights. In the postwar years, blacks and radicalized diversified their methods of struggle against racial discrimination. (Bates, 1962)

Some of these methods were traditional, such as judicial proceedings in court by the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), and new in its way: those who promoted nonviolent protest direct action, who demanded the formation of a black nation in. In this context, it should be noted that both the protests faced by the NAACP as groups of nonviolent direct action, unlike other more militant centers, whose focus was "integration", i.e. men of color were accepted as equals in American white society. The boycott ended with a great victory for blacks, the city had to yield. In 1956, the Supreme Court declared the laws of the State of Alabama and local that required segregation on buses were unconstitutional. Thus, white and black passengers had to be admitted on equal terms. Moreover, the boycott was important because it captured the attention of the country and around the world to highlight the situation endured by blacks in the American democracy. (Birnbaum, 2000)

Rights of African American before Civil Rights Act

Ultimately this event, as the magnitude of the process unleashed, led the Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act in 1964. This law prohibited racial discrimination in schools, in all public places, gas stations, restaurants, hotels, parks, swimming pools, entertainment, exhibitions, in interstate commerce services, in programs receiving federal funds and also stated unlawful employment discrimination. Another law which is enacted in 1965 included new safeguards for the right to vote and overcome legal and technical gadgets that prevented them from black citizens to realize their constitutional rights. That is, the legal level had achieved great success. However, these laws failed to quell the voices of black people. Despite the abstract right, blacks continued to be exposed to racial discrimination. Martin Luther King and other organizations had emerged as the separatist Black Muslims and Black Panthers, under the leadership of figures like Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael, disqualified the integration objectives and non-violent methods used by Martin Luther King and his followers. These minority groups were involved within the black population, but managed to gain the sympathy of substantial number impatient blacks who had lost hope of participating in the "American Way of Life", the American dream. So the Black Muslims demanded ...