Civil Rights Laws

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how the decade of the 1960s was one of the most momentous, since major anti-discrimination laws were passed to clarify the rights of all people. The paper relates that civil rights laws, passed in 1957, 1960 and 1964, promised voting and employment equality, but were enforced poorly or ignored. The paper discusses how the fight for equal rights for all individuals regardless of race, creed, religion, color or gender continues in the United States until today. The paper concludes that the decade of the 1960s will always be known as one of change and evolution.

From the Paper:

"Some scholars say that because the framers of the U.S. Constitution were a relatively group of white men, many of whom had been educated at the country's best schools and were from some of the best families, the document produced was biased in various ways. For example, in 1987 Justice Thurgood Marshall said that the Constitution was "defective from the start," that its first words--"We the People"--excluded "the majority of American citizens," because it left out blacks and women."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Johnson, Paul. History of the American People. New York: Harper Collins, 1997.
• Tindall, George Brown and Shi, David. America. A Narrative History. New York: Norton, 1984.
• Zinn, Hoard. People's History of the United States. New York: Harper Collins, 1999.

More papers on Civil Rights Laws:

• Research Paper # 26486 : "Civil Rights Laws of the 1960s"
• Research Paper # 15465 : "Civil Rights Laws of 1960s"
• Term Paper # 69225 : "The Civil Rights Movement"

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