~*Black #History Today*~
The Civil Rights Act Of 1964
On February 10, 1964, the United States House of Representatives passed The Civil Rights Act of 1964 after 70 days of debate.
The Act made discrimination illegal on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, and sex in public accommodations, employment, and programs that are federally funded. A substitute bill of this major piece of civil rights legislation was finally approved on June 19, 1964 by the United States Senate after a 50 day filibuster organized by senators from the south.
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Act into law on July 2, 1964. Being a law and being an enforced law are two different things, it still took years for many areas of the country to abide by The Civil Rights Act of 1964.