In this photo: On July 2, 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the historic Civil Rights Act in a nationally televised ceremony at the White House.
In the landmark 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. The 10 years that followed saw great strides for the African-American civil rights movement, as non-violent demonstrations won thousands of supporters to the cause.
Memorable landmarks in the struggle included the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955--sparked by the refusal of Alabama resident Rosa Parks to give up her seat on a city bus to a white woman--and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I have a dream" speech at a rally of hundreds of thousands in Washington, D.C., in 1963.
As the strength of the civil rights movement grew, John F. Kennedy made passage of a new civil rights bill one of the platforms of his successful 1960 presidential campaign. As Kennedy's vice president, Johnson served as chairman of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities. After Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, Johnson followed Kennedy's lead and the Civil Rights Act was born.
Read the rest of the story plus a variety of documentary videos with archival footage at: History.com
Resources:
About Civil Rights and the Civil Rights Act - Cornell University Law School
Civil Rights Act of 1964 & the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Biography of President John F. Kennedy
Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University
1 comments:
Thanks for the great website.
Mariah/Byron
caffection.com
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