The Civil Rights Act was signed into law 54 years ago. It was the people -- marching, sitting at lunch counters, being sprayed with fire hoses, bitten by dogs, shedding the blood -- who applied the pressure that formed the political will to force this onto the president's desk.
Signing the legislation, President Johnson said, "This Civil Rights Act is a challenge to all of us to go to work in our communities and our States, in our homes and in our hearts, to eliminate the last vestiges of injustice in our beloved country."
The law was intended, "to enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the US to provide injunctive relief against discrimination in public accommodations, to authorize the AG to institute suits to protect constitutional rights"
"in public facilities and public education, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights, to prevent discrimination in federally assisted programs, to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity"
"All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities and privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion or national origin."
"The Commission shall investigate allegations in writing under oath or affirmation that certain citizens of the United States are being deprived of their right to vote and have that vote counted by reason of their color, race, religion, or national origin"
"Desegregation means the assignment of students to public schools and within such schools without regard to their race, color, religion, or national origin"
"It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual...because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin"
