Existing comment:
Epilogue:
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 hastened the end of legal Jim Crow. It secured African Americans equal access to restaurants, transportation, and other public facilities. It enabled blacks, women, and other minorities to break down barriers in the workplace. It also made access to equal education a reality for the many Southern and Northern African Americans who began attending integrated schools in the wake of the act's enforcement. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968 expanded these protections to voting and housing, and provided new protections against racially motivated violence. The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 and President Johnson's War on Poverty complemented these civil rights milestones by attacking the economic inequalities that had so long accompanied racial discrimination and exclusion.
The civil rights struggle and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also served as blueprints and inspiration for many other groups of Americans seeking equality and access. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which barred employment discrimination based on sex as well as race, color, religion, and national origins, energized the women's movement and led to the founding of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966. Emboldened by the remarkable achievement of the 1964 act, activists have convinced Congress to protect such groups as older Americans, people with disabilities, and pregnant women so that they could participate fully in public and private life.
Even so, the struggle for equality is far from over. As transformative as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its successors have been, the exclusion, exploitation, and discrimination that it targeted were deeply entrenched and have proved difficult to end. The act and its subsequent enforcement continue to prompt new debates about what equality means, what government can do to promote it, and how ordinary Americans can continue to achieve it. The future of civil rights, like its past, will be shaped by citizens' participation in lobbying, litigation, politics, and public protests. |