2 July 1964
Civil Rights Act
United States; racial minorities and other protected groups
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title II prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin in covered public accommodations. Title VI addressed discrimination in federally assisted programs. Title VII established employment protections and the EEOC; its main employment prohibitions took effect on July 2, 1965.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
Coverage and enforcement differed by title. Title II covered specified establishments connected to interstate commerce or state-supported discrimination, with exceptions including genuinely private clubs and certain small owner-occupied lodgings. Title VII also protected against sex discrimination, but its original employer coverage was limited and phased in. The Act strengthened federal enforcement for public facilities and schools and added voting protections; it did not abolish literacy tests. The Supreme Court upheld Title II as applied in Heart of Atlanta Motel and Katzenbach v. McClung on December 14, 1964. Earlier federal public-accommodation protections in sections 1–2 of the 1875 Act had been invalidated as applied to the states in 1883. Some states already prohibited discrimination. These legal changes did not establish universal compliance: the EEOC initially lacked its later authority to sue private employers.
Sources
- Original law: Public Law 88-352, 78 Stat. 241 — §§201–207, 301, 407, 601–602, 701–707, 716 ↗
- National Archives: enactment on July 2, 1964; transcript, Titles I–IV and VI–VII ↗
- DOJ: Title II — covered establishments, protected grounds and exceptions ↗
- DOJ: Title VI — federally assisted programs ↗
- EEOC: original 1964 Act — §§701–707 and 716; distinguish this text from later amendments ↗
- Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S. 3 (1883), pp. 4–5 and 25–26 — 1875 provisions and the Court’s holding ↗
- Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, 379 U.S. 241 (1964), pp. 249–262 — constitutionality and earlier state protections ↗
- Katzenbach v. McClung, 379 U.S. 294 (1964), pp. 300–305 — application to a restaurant ↗
- EEOC institutional history: original enforcement limits and the 1972 expansion ↗
- Research starting point: Howard Zinn, The Twentieth Century: A People’s History, H00 at approximately 00:44:02. Recording and underlying source notes not rechecked in this audit.