Library Catalog
On the Shelf at CCBC Libraries
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Legacies of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
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The 1964 Civil Rights Act, in conjunction with the Voting Rights Act of the following year, totally transformed the shape of American race relations. Supporters of the Civil Rights Act sought, at minimum, the elimination of racial segregation in publicly supported schools, hospitals, public transport, and other public spaces, and an end to open and blatant racial discrimination in employment practices. Judged in those terms, the act is a remarkable success story. It has shown the power of the central government to change deeply entrenched patterns of behavior. In terms of the law, blacks are no longer second-class citizens. From other perspectives, however, the act is seen as a failure. Either it went too far, by institutionalizing race-specific forms of preferences, or it did not go far enough, leaving untouched the socioeconomic differences and lingering effects of past discrimination that perpetuate race-based inequities. Legacies of the 1964 Civil Rights Act brings together a distinguished group of political scientists, historians, lawyers, statisticians, and sociologists who have written extensively on civil rights issues. The editor, Bernard Grofman, has asked the contributors to stand back from the immediate controversies about civil rights reflected in today's news and to provide historical and comparative perspective about this important legislation. Organized into four sections, the book covers the origins of the act and its historical evolution, its consequences in several different policy domains, and the future of civil rights in the United States. An appendix contains two somewhat more technical essays on legal standards for statutory violations and statistical issues in measuring discrimination. Because the moral urgency of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was triggered by revulsion against racial segregation, the act's legacy is primarily seen in the life chances of African Americans. This volume provides a broad and detailed picture of the act's impact on African Americans' lives.
Call Number: KF4757 .L44 2000Publication Date: 2000-04-29 -
An Idea Whose Time Has Come
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A top Washington journalist recounts the dramatic political battle to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the law that created modern America, on the fiftieth anniversary of its passage It was a turbulent time in America--a time of sit-ins, freedom rides, a March on Washington and a governor standing in the schoolhouse door--when John F. Kennedy sent Congress a bill to bar racial discrimination in employment, education, and public accommodations. Countless civil rights measures had died on Capitol Hill in the past. But this one was different because, as one influential senator put it, it was "an idea whose time has come." In a powerful narrative layered with revealing detail, Todd S. Purdum tells the story of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, recreating the legislative maneuvering and the larger-than-life characters who made its passage possible. From the Kennedy brothers to Lyndon Johnson, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Hubert Humphrey and Everett Dirksen, Purdum shows how these all-too-human figures managed, in just over a year, to create a bill that prompted the longest filibuster in the history of the U.S. Senate yet was ultimately adopted with overwhelming bipartisan support. He evokes the high purpose and low dealings that marked the creation of this monumental law, drawing on extensive archival research and dozens of new interviews that bring to life this signal achievement in American history. Often hailed as the most important law of the past century, the Civil Rights Act stands as a lesson for our own troubled times about what is possible when patience, bipartisanship, and decency rule the day.
Call Number: KF4744.515 1964 .P87 2014 -
The Bill of the Century
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The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the single most important piece of legislation passed by Congress in American history. This one law so dramatically altered American society that, looking back, it seems preordained-as Everett Dirksen, the GOP leader in the Senate and a key supporter of the bill, said, "no force is more powerful than an idea whose time has come." But there was nothing predestined about the victory: a phalanx of powerful senators, pledging to "fight to the death" for segregation, launched the longest filibuster in American history to defeat it. The bill's passage has often been credited to the political leadership of President Lyndon Johnson, or the moral force of Martin Luther King. Yet as Clay Risen shows, the battle for the Civil Rights Act was a story much bigger than those two men. It was a broad, epic struggle, a sweeping tale of unceasing grassroots activism, ringing speeches, backroom deal-making and finally, hand-to-hand legislative combat. The larger-than-life cast of characters ranges from Senate lions like Mike Mansfield and Strom Thurmond to NAACP lobbyist Charles Mitchell, called "the 101st senator" for his Capitol Hill clout, and industrialist J. Irwin Miller, who helped mobilize a powerful religious coalition for the bill. The "idea whose time had come" would never have arrived without pressure from the streets and shrewd leadership in Congress--all captured in Risen's vivid narrative. This critical turning point in American history has never been thoroughly explored in a full-length account. Now,New York Times editor and acclaimed author Clay Risen delivers the full story, in all its complexity and drama.
Call Number: KF4749 .R57 2014Publication Date: 2014-06-05
Streaming Video
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How the Civil Rights Act Changed America (7/2/14)July 2, 2014, marked 50 years since President Lyndon Johnson signed the landmark Civil Rights Act, outlawing discrimination based on race, ethnicity and sex. Gwen Ifill is joined by Todd Purdum to discuss his new book, An Idea Whose Time Has Come, which tells the story of how the legislation came to be.
Government and Primary Sources
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Civil Rights Act (1964)
Scan and transcript of the act from the U.S. National Archives -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom
An exhibition from the Library of Congress. Includes videos and documents.
Online From CCBC Libraries
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The Civil Rights Act and the Battle to End Workplace Discrimination
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On the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, Raymond F. Gregory evaluates our progress towards the full implementation of one of the law's key provisions: Title VII, which prohibits discrimination in the workplace. Gregory looks at key litigation as the law has come to include discrimination based on more than just race, but on gender, age, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. From the segregationist policies of the past to lingering workplace oppression in the form of sexual harassment, age discrimination, and religious conflicts, the places we work have always been the scenes of some of our greatest civil rights battles. This study of the landmark cases and rulings, and debates surrounding workplace discrimination of all kinds sheds light on the cultural tensions we grapple with in America. Gregory also looks at the broader history of oppression suffered, recognized, and overcome, in the 50 years since this country passed its Civil Rights Act. In addition to a detailed history of the legal history of civil rights and America's workplace discrimination, this book also outlines positive ways forward for our society as we continue to diversify and redefine what it means to be respectful of our fellow citizens' most inalienable, protected, and sacred rights.
Publication Date: 2014-
Secondary Sources
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Each section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, explained
A video from Britannica.com