The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the first strong piece of civil rights legislation in almost ninety years. President John F. Kennedy had been elected and called on Congress to bring forth this new legislation, yet by the time of his assignation on November 22nd, 1963, nothing had materialized. Yet Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy's successor, has stepped in to keeps the legislative wheels turning.
The bill was met with concrete resistance in the Senate, with a Southern group debating endlessly in an attempt to kill the bill, but the pressure of an outraged nation and an intent administration finally broke the stalemate. Senator Joseph S. Clark speaking of the Senate and its efforts to kill the bill said, "Heedless of its mail, allergic to public opinion polls, apparently unaware of the grave moral issue involved, a minority of this body, day after day, under archaic rules and procedures existing in no other legislative body in the civilized world, prevents a majority of this body to act from acting on this civil rights bill." The Civil Rights Act had finally been enacted.
The government had at last sided with the movement (Mooney 778). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed and passed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2nd 1994, after one of the longest running debates in Senate history. It was an idea that started with President Kennedy, and after his assassination the civil rights groups had to face the question of whether legislative strategies would be the same under the new President, but President Johnson saw them through (Watters 119).
The comprehensive legislation was the most important law passed in civil rights since the Reconstruction. It was groundbreaking legislation that aimed to end all forms of discrimination based on race, color, gender, religion or national origin....................
