U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed into law
- Date
- 2 July 1964
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- North America (United States)
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
On 2 July 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, landmark legislation that outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex or national origin.
The Act banned segregation in public accommodations such as hotels, restaurants and theatres, prohibited employment discrimination, and authorised the federal government to enforce desegregation of public facilities and to withhold funds from discriminatory programmes. First proposed by President John F. Kennedy before his assassination, the bill was passed after one of the longest debates in U.S. Senate history, overcoming a prolonged filibuster. Together with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it dismantled the legal framework of Jim Crow segregation and reshaped American society. The legislation marked a major victory for the civil rights movement and addressed a recurrent point of Cold War criticism that American racial inequality undercut U.S. claims to global moral leadership.
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Empires active in 2 July 1964
- Soviet Union1922 CE – 1991 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
- Dutch Empire1581 CE – 1975 CE
Related politics & governance events
- Construction of the Berlin Wall13 August 1961
- Founding of the People's Republic of China1 October 1949
- Iranian RevolutionJanuary–February 1979
- Establishment of Apartheid in South Africa1948
- Independence and Partition of British India14–15 August 1947
- Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika1985–1991 (from 11 March 1985)
Further reading
The wider story
The Americas: A Hemispheric History
Brisk single-volume history of the whole hemisphere since European contact.
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