Essay On The Civil Rights Act

Our Founding Founders established the federal government with three distinct branches, each with powers over the other in order to have a proper checks and balances to ensure fairness across the board. The U.S. Constitution outlines the powers and responsibilities of the three branches of government and is a critical document for the federal government. Important laws and documents such as The Bill of Rights, The US Civil Rights Act and The Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) are managed by our Constitution. Below we will discuss three subjects which set up a diverse broad range of viewpoints that are essential in our democracy.

part in todays lessons plan. Also should be parents aware, that not talking to your

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is considered by some to be one of the most important laws in American history. (The Most Important Cases, Speeches, Laws & Documents in American History) This Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964 and it is a “comprehensive federal statute aimed at reducing discrimination in public accommodations and employment situations.” (Feuerbach Twomey, 2010) Specifically, it aimed at prohibiting “discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy), and religion.” (Civil Rights Act of 1964, 2010) Additionally, it also

The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution form what is known as the Bill of Rights. In essence it is a summary of the basic rights held by all U.S. citizens. However, Negro citizens during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950-70’s felt this document and its mandate that guaranteed the civil rights and civil liberties of all people; were interpreted differently for people of color. The freedoms outlined in the Constitution were not enforced the same by the government of the United States for the black race as it did for the white race.

Just over a year later Southeast of Kansas on December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, boarded a segregated bus and took her seat in the front of the colored section. When a white passenger boarded the bus and the whites-only section was full Rosa was ordered to give up her seat; she refused. When she was arrested the community became uneasy. This event sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the two events became the foundation of the Civil Rights Movement.

Due to the growing power if the civil rights movement, for example, Brown vs Board of Education and Rosa Parks, the Department of Justice was finally mandated to enforce federal hate crime laws when Congress passed and President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the first federal hate crime statute, the Civil Rights Act in July 2, 1964. The law expanded protection against all types of discrimination. It was finally a criminal offense if you used or threaten to use force to willfully interfere with any person because of race, color, religion, or national origin.4 The act prohibited racial discrimination in voting, employment, and education. It also outlawed racial segregation in all public places and most private businesses. President Johnson stated regarding the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that “Its purpose is not to divide but to end division. Divisions which have lasted all too long.”5

To prove their pledge to equality for all over 200,000 people accumulated at the nation’s capital for this march. Martin Luther King Jr, who was a spokesman for the SCLC in Atlanta, Ga. He later became a spokesman for the Civil Rights movement. His speech began with a popular history phrase “I have a dream”. This speech did not make a great change at the time, but it end up being a major victory for black Americans. By 1964 legislation prohibited employers’ from racial and gender discrimination and outlawed segregation in public

As World War II ended in 1945 the world was barely taking a step towards recovery as tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union grew over the fate of eastern Europe. Tensions weren’t exclusively in international relationships. At the home front American officials were being increasingly pressured to ensure civil rights for everyone. Despite the pressure put on officials by fellow Americans “committed to fighting racism abroad” (871) and by other countries, the process of eliminating racism and advancing civil rights for African Americans wasn’t successful until the 1950’s.

The civil rights of African Americans were a concern among the majority of Americans before the Civil War. During the war, it became evident that this was the primary cause of the war. The North reigned victor, and with the Emancipation Proclamation, all the former slaves were set free in the South. This was the first step for African Americans to achieve permanent civil rights, but the effort was temporarily put at rest when Reconstruction ended. Ultimately, it was the opposition in the South, and the changing mindset of northern Republicans that made Reconstruction a failure in achieving permanent African American civil rights.

The civil rights act attempted to level the playing field and in some cases it did. It required that all people live, work, and go to school together. It was the groundwork for the beginning of an African-American middle-class and basically was the first step in getting an African-American person elected president only 44 years after the Act was signed. 50 years ago there were separate drinking fountains, separate bathrooms, and separate schools. Now there isn’t.

Equality: the state or quality of being equal; correspondence in quantity,degree, value, rank, or ability: power or capacity to do or act physically, mentally, legally, morally,financially, etc.

2) Dr. King was an leader and activist of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, using nonviolence. December 1955, King led the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In 1963, Dr. King marched to Washington, D.C. to preach his famous I Have a Dream speech.

Equality- the state or quality of being equal; correspondence in quantity, degree, value, rank, or ability.

The American declaration of independence stated, that: “All men are created equal”. But in the 19th century only whites were born with equal opportunities. Africans were imported as slaves and had to work on the fields of the whites. Until 1865 the Negroes were treated and looked at as something lower than human. They were compared to apes, and therefore just owned the same rights as animals. They were raised believing that whites were superior. It took them years to realize that they have to stand up for their rights. The uprising turned into a brutal civil war.

Rosa Parks was a spark in the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa didn’t plan to make history on December 1, 1955. She simply was too tired, and when the bus driver asked her to move to the back for the white man wanting two seats, she refused to get up. Rosa stood out even when her only intention was to make a