Running Head: CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964 1
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Name
Institution
Course
Tutor
Date
Introduction
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the US which
was enacted to prohibit prejudice on the basis of people’s racial extract, skin color, religious
beliefs, gender, and national origin. A further revision to the Act saw protection against
discrimination based on sexual orientation, which protected the people that identified as
LGBTQ. With the introduction of the Act, people could mingle freely, at the workplaces, at
school and in every other sphere where it was originally illegal. The Act has been heralded as
one of the best legislation in the United States’ history hitherto since it reduced the racial
segregation that had seen the Blacks and other people being maltreated and mistreated by the
whites for several centuries.
Identification of the Social Problem
The United States as it is known today is substantially different from what it was
before the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Before the Act, the US was characterized by some of the
worst social discriminations that caused significant civil rights violations (Shannon, 2020). A
myriad of challenges affected the nation’s social life, which led to several civil rights
, CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964 2
movements in the country, especially during the 1950s, which ended with enacting the 1964’s
Civil Rights Act.
One of the social problems affecting the United States at the time was
institutionalized racial discrimination. A typical example of institutionalized racial
discrimination was the Jim Crow Laws enacted in the Southern and border states of the US,
which took effect in 1876 and operated until 1965, a year after enacting the 1964 Civil Rights
Act. Jim Crow laws permitted and mandated separate but equal status for the Afro-
Americans. However, instead of these laws protecting the Afro-Americans, they caused them
to be given treatments and accommodations that were often inferior to those given to the
White Americans. For example, the Jim Crow Laws required that the Blacks do not attend
schools, board vehicles or share public places with whites.
Another social problem that led to the several civil rights movements in the country
was disenfranchisement, where the Black people were not allowed to vote. This began to
manifest mostly after the Reconstruction Era in 1877 and was most prevalent in the Southern
States, where slavery had been a norm during most of the 19th century’s beginning. Although
there were no direct efforts or institutionalization on the voting issue, the Southern States
made everything hard for the Blacks so that voting would be a costly and extremely hard
endeavor (Clayton, 2018). For example, whenever the Whites were in charge of voter
registration, they made it hard for the black people to register to vote successfully.
All these challenges were a manifestation and a result of several underlying factors
that led to the civil rights problems in the country. One of the leading underlying factors that
caused the discrimination and segregation that the Blacks and other people of color faced was
the whites’ attitudes (Hayter, 2018). For example, for a long time, the Whites did not view
Blacks as humans with as much intelligence as the whites. According to most whites, the
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Name
Institution
Course
Tutor
Date
Introduction
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the US which
was enacted to prohibit prejudice on the basis of people’s racial extract, skin color, religious
beliefs, gender, and national origin. A further revision to the Act saw protection against
discrimination based on sexual orientation, which protected the people that identified as
LGBTQ. With the introduction of the Act, people could mingle freely, at the workplaces, at
school and in every other sphere where it was originally illegal. The Act has been heralded as
one of the best legislation in the United States’ history hitherto since it reduced the racial
segregation that had seen the Blacks and other people being maltreated and mistreated by the
whites for several centuries.
Identification of the Social Problem
The United States as it is known today is substantially different from what it was
before the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Before the Act, the US was characterized by some of the
worst social discriminations that caused significant civil rights violations (Shannon, 2020). A
myriad of challenges affected the nation’s social life, which led to several civil rights
, CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964 2
movements in the country, especially during the 1950s, which ended with enacting the 1964’s
Civil Rights Act.
One of the social problems affecting the United States at the time was
institutionalized racial discrimination. A typical example of institutionalized racial
discrimination was the Jim Crow Laws enacted in the Southern and border states of the US,
which took effect in 1876 and operated until 1965, a year after enacting the 1964 Civil Rights
Act. Jim Crow laws permitted and mandated separate but equal status for the Afro-
Americans. However, instead of these laws protecting the Afro-Americans, they caused them
to be given treatments and accommodations that were often inferior to those given to the
White Americans. For example, the Jim Crow Laws required that the Blacks do not attend
schools, board vehicles or share public places with whites.
Another social problem that led to the several civil rights movements in the country
was disenfranchisement, where the Black people were not allowed to vote. This began to
manifest mostly after the Reconstruction Era in 1877 and was most prevalent in the Southern
States, where slavery had been a norm during most of the 19th century’s beginning. Although
there were no direct efforts or institutionalization on the voting issue, the Southern States
made everything hard for the Blacks so that voting would be a costly and extremely hard
endeavor (Clayton, 2018). For example, whenever the Whites were in charge of voter
registration, they made it hard for the black people to register to vote successfully.
All these challenges were a manifestation and a result of several underlying factors
that led to the civil rights problems in the country. One of the leading underlying factors that
caused the discrimination and segregation that the Blacks and other people of color faced was
the whites’ attitudes (Hayter, 2018). For example, for a long time, the Whites did not view
Blacks as humans with as much intelligence as the whites. According to most whites, the
