This research paper discusses the origins, progress, aftermath and implications of 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).
The '64 and '65 Acts were enacted during the administration of President Lyndon Johnson. They represented a culmination of a long struggle by the civil rights movement for recognition of the legal and political rights of African Americans. The effective mobilization by black leaders of opposition to Southern segregation and discrimination coupled with the intransigent and brutal tactics employed by Southern extremists helped generate public support for new civil rights legislation, which was effectively led, at first hesitantly, and then more decisively, by Presidents John Kennedy and Johnson. LBJ probably did more for the cause of black civil rights than any President since Abraham Lincoln, out of a combination of political calculation and personal conviction. The relationship between black civil rights leaders and these presidents was often uneasy during the 1960s, but became more cordial during 1963-1965. This was due to a convergence of mutual interests, but the relationship deteriorated thereafter amidst the pressures produced by a white backlash to urban rioting, the split between black leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King and Johnson over the Vietnam War, and divisions within the black leadership itself. The '64 and '65 Acts revolutionized politics in the South and helped that region participate more fully in the nation's progress. Blacks, other ethnic and racial minorities, and women benefited greatly from the civil rights legislation of the 1960s, but efforts since then by African Americans to participate more fully in American society have largely been stymied.
According to Schlesinger, "after the collapse of Reconstruction, the ex-slaves and their descendant...