The 1964 Civil Rights Act: A Millsian Analysis

Paper Summary:

In the post-World War II period, American has undergone any number of often dramatic social transformations, many of which have focused on new demands for empowerment on the part of disparate minority groups such as African-Americans. Many theorists suggest that the "identity politics" of this era challenged the American establishment of elites in business, society and government as well as the military. The paper shows that this challenge was integral to the liberal agenda of the 1960s, an agenda that resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, banning discrimination in employment and public accommodations on the basis of race, religion, gender or national origin. It is the social transformation ushered in by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, with a specific focus on the impact of this and other Congressional Acts (e.g., the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 and the 1966 Metropolitan Area Redevelopment and Demonstration Cities Act), that is analyzed in this paper from the perspective of C. Wright Mills.

From the Paper:

"The 1960s and the 1970s brought permanent, even revolutionary, changes in American race and social relations. Henretta, et al (1997), for example, state that Jim Crow segregation was overturned in less than a decade, and federal legislation ensured protection of Black Americans' basic civil rights. The enfranchisement of Blacks in southern states ended the political control by a lily-white Democratic party, and facilitate the political advancement of African-Americans and their increased visibility in local government positions and elected state and federal Congressional seats. Today, African-Americans hold or have held key posts - as city mayors, council members and aldermen or women, as governors, as Congresspersons and as Senators. Many (though perhaps hardly enough) have been appointed to the judiciary, to Cabinet-level posts in Washington, DC, to positions in the State Department, or have reached high-ranking military ranks (including a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell). Other African-Americans have moved into the managerial and executive suites of corporate America, or into the worlds of academia, medicine, science, and the entertainment industry. However, Henretta, et al (1997), and Martin and Roberts (1990), as well as William Julius Wilson (1996), suggest that the advancement of African-Americans (and other minority groups) into the highest echelons of power, authority and influence has remained partial at best."

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