Johnson Signs Civil Rights Act: Segregation Outlawed
Lyndon Johnson signed the bill using 75 pens, handing one to Martin Luther King Jr., who stood directly behind him. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed segregation in hotels, restaurants, theaters, and public facilities nationwide, demolished the Jim Crow system that had enforced racial separation for nearly a century, and barred employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The "sex" provision was added by a Virginia congressman who thought it would kill the bill. It passed anyway. Enforcement fell to a new agency, the EEOC, which received more than 8,000 complaints in its first year alone, proving that legal change and lived reality remained far apart.
July 2, 1964
62 years ago
Key Figures & Places
President of the United States
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Lyndon B. Johnson
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Civil Rights Act of 1964
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Civil rights movement
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Lyndon B. Johnson
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Civil Rights Act of 1964
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Washington, D.C.
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Racismo en Estados Unidos
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South Carolina
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United States Congress
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Jim Crow
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President
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Benjamin Harrison
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United States Senate
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Sherman Antitrust Act
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Monopoly
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Bürgerrechtsbewegungen
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