Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act
of 1965, and the 24th Amendment
By Sydney N.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
 Relied on 14th and 15th Amendments, Commerce Clause
(Article I, Section 8)
 Result of decades before with protests and boycotts
 Included:
 voting rights
 public accommodations
 discrimination limits (in federally funded programs)
 desegregation of public areas
 authorized review of district court referrals by higher courts
 Reauthorized/expanded US Commission on Civil Rights
Kennedy’s Involvement
 In the first 2 years of his
administration, there was no focus on
civil rights, but more on international
issues.
 After the rising occurrence of
violence domestically, he was
shocked at how necessary it was to
fix the issue of civil rights
Kennedy’s Involvement
 11 June 1963 he gave an address on national
television to propose a bill
 Medgar Evers murdered in his lawn the
evening after the speech
 March on Washington for jobs and Freedom
that August
 KKK bombing (15 September) killing four
girls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWX_p
jyIq-g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wDUoYQN04
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
 Highly controversial when first
announced by President Kennedy in
1963.
 First tried to pass it, but Congress
would not let it go through.
 Lyndon B. Johnson was later able to
sign it into law on 2 July, 1964.
 Opposed civil rights legislation until
1957
 Constitutionality was immediately
questioned, held up in Heart of
Atlanta Motel v. U.S. 1964.
The US Commission on Civil Rights
 Originally created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957
 Bipartisan and independent
 Meant to focus on and help further civil rights issues
 Has been reauthorized several times by Congress
 Most recent was 1994 by Civil Rights Commission
Amendments Act 1994.
Views on the Act
 Whites:




Many opposed integration of blacks
protests
More support toward pro-segregation public office candidates
Occasional racial violence
 Blacks:
 Many protests regarding civil rights had occurred
 King had influenced movements and protests, eventually the
black community convinced Kennedy to introduce legislation
for civil rights.
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rightsact/videos/civil-rights-act-of-1964
Results and Impact
 Discrimination still persisted on a smaller level
 Some restaurants and privately owned businesses resisted the
new act
 Federal funds could be withheld from any government
business that discriminated
 Major shift in political parties
 Democratic party lost votes in the Solid South, Legislators
switched to either independent or republican parties
 Almost full switch by the end of the 1960s into a Republican
South
 Foreign and domestic factors altered the shift, and it was not
Evolution of the Act
 Originally proposed by Kennedy, but carried out by Johnson
 Title II banned discrimination in public areas
 Faced controversy from many, separated from the rest of the
legislation
 Title VII by Virginia Senator Howard Smith added equal
gender opportunity in employment
 A filibuster occurred for three months by 19 southern
senators
 At this point gender, race, ethnicity, and religion were protected
 Signed into law 2 July 1964 (Passed in Senate 73-27, and in
House by 289-126)
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
 Civil Rights Act had a section
dedicated to voting rights, but it
was not sufficient for what US
citizens needed
 Evident by Freedom Summer and
the MFDP at the Democratic
National Convention in New
Jersey.
 Johnson Administration knew that
it would be difficult to pass
another act immediately after the
Civil Rights Act.
Events that Influenced the Act
 Civil rights activist groups continued to demand voting rights
 SCLC (Martin Luther King Jr) in 1965 opened a voting rights
campaign in Alabama
 Violence and threats came from white communities opposed
to civil rights efforts
Bloody Sunday
 After Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot at a march in Alabama,
James Bevel from the SCLC organized a march from Selma
to Montgomery.
 Became known as “Bloody Sunday”
 Included over 500 people on the Edmund Pettus Bridge
 Jim Clark, the Dallas County Sherriff, had deputized KKK
members at one point, and immediately called white male
residents to be deputized against the activists
 Police initially tried to limit the protest, using tear gas, billy
clubs, and horseback riders using whips
 Over 50 people were hurt, images spread over the US
President Johnson’s Response
 Clearly outraged at the event, immediately took action after
Bloody Sunday
 Gave a speech 15 March 1965 discussing the events and what
the US must do to overcome the issue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxEauRq1WxQ
 After his speech, he made efforts to create an act that would
support those fighting for civil rights
 Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed 6 August 1965
The Voting Rights Act 1965
 Outlawed literacy tests
 Told the US Dept of Justice to challenge poll taxes.
 Gave the Attorney General power to assign federal examiners
in order to observe voter registration where fewer than ½ of
the residents of an area were registered to vote
Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections
and South Carolina v. Katzenback 1966
 Upheld requirements of the Act
 Decided that it was constitutional to place proof burden of
compliance on states and localities that historically violated
voting rights
 Result: by 2 years over half of the Southern African
Americans (of legal age) were registered to vote
 By 1968 almost 60% of eligible African American voters
became involved in voting in Mississippi, other Southern states
improved
 1965-1990 black state legislators and Congress members
increased from 2 to 160.
Amendment 24
 This Amendment is linked to the two acts discussed before
 Ratified 23 January 1964
 Prohibited the use of poll taxes during elections for any
federal official
Bibliography
 Rogers, Mark. Rights and Protest. 2015.
 US Commission on Civil Rights. “USCCR: About Us.” USCCR,
http://www.usccr.gov/about/index.php. Accessed 28 April
2017.
 "Civil Rights Act." Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 2 Feb.
2017. school.eb.com/levels/high/article/Civil-Rights-Act/82762.
Accessed 9 May. 2017.
 "Harper v.Virginia Board of Elections." Oyez,
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1965/48. Accessed 9 May. 2017.
 Cornell University Law School. “24th Amendment.” Cornell
University Law,
https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxxiv.
Accessed 9 May 2017.