Which law ended segregation

After Kennedy's assassination in November, President Lyndon Johnson pressed hard, with the support of Roy Wilkins and Clarence Mitchell, to secure the bill's passage the following year. In , Congress passed Public Law 78 Stat. The Civil Rights Act of prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as, race in hiring, promoting, and firing.

For decades after Reconstruction , the U. Congress did not pass a single civil rights act. Finally, in , it established a civil rights section of the Justice Department, along with a Commission on Civil Rights to investigate discriminatory conditions. Three years later, Congress provided for court-appointed referees to help Black people register to vote.

Both of these bills were strongly watered down to overcome southern resistance. When John F. Kennedy entered the White House in , he initially delayed supporting new anti-discrimination measures. But with protests springing up throughout the South—including one in Birmingham, Alabama , where police brutally suppressed nonviolent demonstrators with dogs, clubs and high-pressure fire hoses—Kennedy decided to act. Johnson immediately took up the cause. During debate on the floor of the U.

In a mischievous attempt to sabotage the bill, a Virginia segregationist introduced an amendment to ban employment discrimination against women. That one passed, whereas over other hostile amendments were defeated. In the end, the House approved the bill with bipartisan support by a vote of The bill then moved to the U.

Senate , where southern and border state Democrats staged a day filibuster—among the longest in U. Having broken the filibuster, the Senate voted in favor of the bill, and Johnson signed it into law on July 2, In the s and s, a wave of protest aimed at ending discrimination and segregation against African Americans, especially in the South, brought civil rights to the forefront of national debate.

Civil rights had its champions in Congress, but they had to work to surmount institutional impediments in the House and Senate to pass the landmark Civil Rights Act of House opposition to the Civil Rights bill took the form of keeping it bottled up in the House Rules Committee.

The Court found that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" and a violation of the 14th Amendment. This decision polarized Americans, fostered debate, and served as a catalyst to encourage federal action to protect civil rights. Marshals standing by fence near crowd during the March on Washington, Warren K. Social pressures continued to build with events such as the Birmingham Campaign, televised clashes between peaceful protesters and authorities, the murders of civil rights workers Medgar Evers and William L.

Moore, the March on Washington , and the deaths of four young girls in the bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church. There was no turning back. Civil rights were firmly on the national agenda and the federal government was forced to respond. President John F. Johnson continued to press for passage of the bill — as King noted in a January newspaper column, legislation "will feel the intense focus of Negro interest It became the order of the day at the great March on Washington last summer.

The Negro and his white compatriots for self-respect and human dignity will not be denied. The House of Representatives debated H. It passed the House on February 10, after 70 days of public hearings, appearances by witnesses, and 5, pages of published testimony.