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The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on this day, the first in a trio of laws that passed which ushered in a new wave of racial equality. Despite the tragic circumstances leading up to the passing of the bill, the moment was instrumental in changing the future of Black America.

On June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy made an appeal in a televised civil rights-themed speech that called for legislation that would give equal rights for anyone to enter public establishments. The speech came after Birmingham Campaign in 1963, which ended violently for peaceful civil rights activists, students and children in Alabama.

Kennedy and the impending bill were met with resistance, this after New York congressman Emmanuel Celler and the House Judiciary Committee made tweaks to the law to include a ban on racial discrimination for employment, eliminating segregation in all public facilities beyond schools, and giving Black voters protection rights.

By October of 1963, Kennedy and other lawmakers were gathering enough votes in the House of Representatives to get the law passed. Howard Smith, a Southern Democrat from Virginia who supported segregation, used shady tactics to keep the bill stalled.

Little Known Black History Fact: Civil Rights Act of 1964  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com

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