Paper Summary:

This paper examines the history behind the principal federal civil rights legislation passed in the 1960s, primarily the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (the '64 Act) and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (the '65 Act) and their implications. The '64 and '65 Acts were enacted during the administration of President Lyndon Johnson and represented a culmination of a long struggle by the civil rights movement for recognition of the legal and political rights of African Americans. It analyzes how they revolutionized politics in the South and helped that region participate more fully in the nation's progress. It also looks at how blacks, other ethnic and racial minorities and women benefited greatly from the civil rights legislation of the 1960s, but how efforts since then by African Americans to participate more fully in American society have largely been thwarted.

Outline
Background
Origins of the '64 Act
Passage of the '64 Act
Johnson's Motivations
Legislative Strategy
Effect of the '64 Act
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
Civil Rights Laws and White Backlash
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Further crises followed. The Kennedys negotiated with Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett to ensure the peaceful entry of James Meredith as a student at Mississippi University in September 1962, but they were forced to send in 500 marshals. After the marshals were overwhelmed by a local mob and had suffered 160 wounded, JFK sent in 5,000 Army troops. Both Kennedys felt that they had been double-crossed by Barnett. Weisbrot said "the events at Ole Miss did much to reshape President Kennedy's thinking about race, politics, and his role in civil rights reform." Next, anti-segregation demonstrations took place in Birmingham in the spring of 1963 where nationwide television audiences witnessed the brutality used by Police Chief Bull Connor on unarmed civil rights demonstrators."

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