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Eric Hendrickson Student Alias 5 Student Alias 3 Lindsay Kotterman Rhet 105 Section Q10 Group Research Project 2
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 resulted from one of the most controversial House and Senate debates in history. It was also the biggest piece of civil rights legislation ever passed. The bill actually evolved from previous civil rights bills in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. The bill passed through both houses finally on July 2, 1964 and was signed into law at 6:55 P.M. EST by President Lyndon Johnson. The act was originally drawn up in 1962 under President Kennedy before his assassination. The bill originated from two others, and one of which was the Equal Opportunity Act of 1962 that never went into law. This bill made up the core of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Bureau of National Affairs 18-20). There were many groups involved in the process of drawing up the bill and helping it to become a law. The main groups for the passage of the bill were the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, industrial unions of the AFL-CIO, many church groups, the White House, the Justice Department, and many northern Democrats and Republicans. The major groups that were opposed to the bill were the Coordinating Committee for Fundamental American Freedoms funded greatly from Mississippi, and the Southern Democratic caucus (Bickel 17). These groups voiced their opinion and helped representatives decide how they should vote. The many groups involved crossed party lines to debate and vote for a bill to better America. Any bill that becomes a law has to go through the House of Representatives and the Senate with a passing vote. The Civil Rights Bill easily passed the House with Northern Democrats and the Republican supporters turning out a vote of 290 to 130. Lyndon Johnson stated after the bill went through the house that it was, “Now a task for the Senate…I hope the same spirit of nonpartisanship will prevail there to assure passage of the bill, guaranteeing the fundamental rights of all Americans” (Kenworthy). The bill then went to the senate where there was much debate and procrastination. Many senators opposed to the bill tried to use the “filibuster” technique, which basically is an extended talk for the purpose of killing a bill or getting drastic modifications. In fact, it was the longest debate in Senate history lasting 534 hours in total. The final vote in the Senate was 76 to 18 to pass their version of the bill since they made minor amendments to it (Bureau of National Affairs 18-21). A quote from Senator John Lesinski, democrat, showed why some were opposed to the bill, “There are still many private rights in America that under our Constitution are beyond the power of government to regulate and one of these is the right to pick and chose one’s associates, one’s friends and one’s customers in a private business” (Calls Bill Unconstitutional 33). The final vote in the House over the amendments the senate made was 289 to 126. This set the way for the bill to be signed by the President to become a law. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 contained eleven titles, or parts, that made the act complete. The first title, “Voting Rights”, made sure that there was no discrimination in literacy tests when determining voting ability. The “Public Accommodations” title said there would be no discrimination or segregation in hotels, motels, restaurants, gas stations, places that served food, theaters, and sports arenas. The Attorney General was given the power to enforce this. Title three, “Desegregation of Public Facilities” did exactly that, it desegregated all public facilities. The “Public Education” title gave the Attorney General the power to sue schools and bring them to court if they didn’t comply. “Civil Rights Commission” made that civil rights commission a permanent body. Title VI, “Federally Assisted Programs”, made sure there was no discrimination in any federal program. “Equal Opportunity Employment” enacted a commission to enforce this title against companies and labor unions. This title forced companies and unions with more than 25 people to not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, religion, color, or origin. Title eight, “Registration and Voting Statistics” made the Secretary of Commerce compile statistics on the denial of the right to vote. “Procedure After Removal in Civil Rights Cases” allowed federal courts to allow appeals of lower courts in the case of discrimination. “Community Relations Service” will provide a service to help communities resolve racial disputes. And the last title, “Miscellaneous” just fills in holes throughout the bill and provides power to federal officers (Summary of Provisions of Rights Bill). This entire bill fixed the previous civil rights bill’s loopholes and was the greatest piece of civil rights legislation of the era. Though considered to be groundbreaking legislation, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 received very limited coverage in the major magazines of the time. But more disheartening than the amount of coverage the Civil Rights Act received is the lack of information each article contains. Both Newsweek and Time magazines, which are considered to be the leading news magazines of the 1960’s, did not have feature articles on this legislation when it passed through congress. In fact, Time magazine carried an extensive article about the William Faulkner when the Civil Rights Act was signed. In these issues a small column of anecdotes regarding congressional proceedings is all that appears. The little information each magazine carries about the Civil Rights Act does not reflects its magnitude, or even mention the historic congress battle over its ratification. In fact, one article discussed how Strom Thurmond and a fellow senator decided to engage in a friendly wrestling match before entering the capitol. Such information is more appropriate for a tabloid or entertainment news than for a respected news source. Because of the lack of information conveyed in the major magazines regarding the Civil Rights Act, no noticeable discrepancies were discovered. Both provided very similar brief synopsis of the congressional proceedings, and the contents of the legislation. Both magazines state President Johnson’s support for legislation, and lists the major supporters for the legislation in both the house and senate. Time and Newsweek also discuss the weak fight southern representatives put up in attempts to block the act. The coverage in regards to the aftermath of the act is also weak. Optimistic articles appeared in both magazines after the act was signed that illustrated stories of little black children receiving haircuts, couples getting milkshakes, and the such. No mention is made of the still existing oppression and racism faced by African Americans. Through the magazine’s coverage of the Civil Rights Act, it is obvious that the legislation is viewed as a quick fix to years of discrimination. With the wave of a pen, it seems as though America suddenly decided to live in unity. This is obviously not true, and to think that major news sources expect the American public to believe it is both demeaning and disconcerting. Summarized Book Review for The Civil Rights Movement in America by Charles Eagles: The Civil Rights Movement in America contains a collection of essays and comments by many talented scholars. The first essay by David Lewis is on the origins and causes of the civil rights movement. He reviews all the events leading to the movement from the 1930s to the 1950s. The next essay by Clayborne Carson focuses on the movement in terms of local communities and mass activism. Nancy Weiss in her essay describes how the national leadership of the civil rights movement is driven by competition and tension. On the other hand, it is interesting to see how David J. Garrow argues against Weiss’ opinions on the definition of leadership throughout his essay. Charles V. Hamilton describes various federal court decisions, and how they had a critical role in movement strategy. He also strongly suggested that the success of the civil rights movement was due to the passage of the acts, which ended segregation. In the final essay by William H. Chafe, it is concluded that the gains made by the movement were not enough, and there is a lot more still needs to be done. These essays not only cover the civil rights movement in great depth, but also describe what happened in many communities at the time, and how the people were really affected after it was thought to be over. Summary of Work for the Research When doing the research for this experiment, we had to consider several different ideas. First of all, we consulted several online search engines. There are many electronic resources available through the University of Illinois online library page, which allow for simplified research. Examples of such resources are American History and Life, JSTOR, Journal of Black Studies, Journal of Negro History, Phylon, and the Journal of African American Studies. There are several print resources available as well to assist with research. These include The New York Times Index, American Decades, The Encyclopedia Britannica, the Dictionary of American History and The New Republic, which is a small older newspaper. These print resources each included many articles regarding the Civil Rights Act of 1934. In addition, we consulted the Library of Congress Subject Headings, which provided many different avenues for finding additional information. We were able to find many alternative subjects to look up to find more information about our topic. By typing in the various search topics that were suggested by the Library of Congress books, we were able to find numerous articles, books and newspapers pertaining to our topic. Works Cited
Bickel, Alexander B. "How the Rights Vote Was Engineered." The
New Bureau of National Affairs. Civil Rights Act of 1964. Washington D.C.: BNA Incorporated, 1964. 17-21. Bloom, Jack M. Class, Race, and the Civil Rights Movement. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1987. "Calls Bill Unconstitutional." New York Times 11 Feb. 1964: 33. Chashman, Sean D. African-American and the Quest for Civil Rights, 1900-1990. New York University Press, 1991. Eagles, Charles W. The Civil Rights Movement in America. Univ. of Mississippi Press, 1986. Encyclopedia Britannica. “Civil Rights Act of 1963”. Volume 3: Ceara-Delva, 1998. 15th edition, Chicago. 172-174. Kenworthy, E. W. "Civil Rights Bill Passed by House in 290-130 Vote; Hard Senate Right Seen." New York Times 10 Feb. 1964. Layman, Richard. “Civil Rights Act of 1964”. American Decades: 1960-1969. Pub. By Gale Research, Inc. 1995. 78-83. “Now the Talking Begins.” Time 21 Feb 1964: 22. “Shall Now Also Be Equal.” Newsweek 13 July 1964: 17. "Summary of Provisions of Rights Bill." New York Times 10 Feb. 1964. “The Skipper and the Ship.” Time 14 Feb 1964: 13. “The Wooed and Wooing.” Time 10 July 1964: 26. |