Civil Rights and Other Special Legislation Enacted During the Mid 1960 S

¶ … Civil Rights

The 1960s was a period that Americans remember as being a period bursting with activities and movements. There was a lot that these years brought out. Some of the things that the period is remembered for are the many movements, including the civil rights and hippies movements, evolution of art and music and a promotion of love and peace with activism against the war in Vietnam. There were many uprisings in the society, especially in terms of culture, with regard to politics and socially as well. As a result of this, a lot of change was experienced in society. The movements for the rights of African-Americans became very strong during this period and forced the then president Lyndon Johnston to push for a Civil Rights Act, which was enacted in 1964 by Congress.

Although the enactment of this Act was welcomed, it was not sufficient and thus, more had to be done. Fair housing was one of the things that the African-American activists and those who stood with them agitated for (Magill, 953). A bill to allow for this was enacted in 1966 and this targeted those owners of property as well as developers, financial institutions and all others who were involved in the housing business. These people were the ones who actively discriminated against African-Americans when they sought for housing. President Johnson's government enacted this law so that rules for elimination of prejudice were put together. Some of the federal organizations that worked together with the government on this were the Community Relations Service and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (Mjagkij, 583).

The Civil Rights Act resulted in a lot of good. It removed the widespread prejudice faced by minorities in terms of housing. This was evidenced by a census conducted in the seventies by political scientists, which showed that housing was changing and there was increased integration in it. There was a large amount of unrest by African-Americans in numerous cities in the United States in 1968, and this put pressure on the Johnston administration to do something. This caused the administration to initiate a housing project in which federal funds would be used for the next decade to reduce the cost of housing for about 600,000 housing units. Clearly, political opinion was swinging this way, for in the next decade, over one million houses would be constructed with federal funds for those with minimal income and this would be an action that was championed by the administration of President Nixon (Magill, 955).

American society would be forever changed by the civil rights movement. The Civil Rights Act as well as the Fair Housing Bill brought about many changes for African-Americans. This also improved the lives of other Americans who did not belong to the majority white population. Businesses could no longer discriminate as before when serving customers. Employers could no longer enforce a preference for White candidates, 'acceptable' religions, nationalities or genders. The civil rights movement also made way in 1965 for the Voting Rights Act, which brought about voting rights for all. Another thing that the Civil Rights Movement sought to bring about was the opportunity for equal education and other services. At the time, there was a lot of segregation as far as race was concerned in school admissions, transportation, service delivery and even treatment in hospitals. Changes began in all these places as a result of this movement. Thus, the government sanctioned segregation that was meant to oppress the African-American population; they were removed as a result of these laws. Though the minds of some people were not affected, the law recognized the African-American people as equal human beings. Grofman (1) notes that since that time, some changes have been made in the legislation for civil rights, though coming from interpretation by the judiciary, rather than from agitation from activists. In fact, the federal government came up with regulations, which were geared towards implementing what the civil rights act provided (Grofman, 43).

New policies were developed by the government, especially on education in order to aid those who could previously not access the quality of education that they desired. Thus, some of the greatest moments in American history that have influenced policies as from 1964 have come from the Civil Rights Movement, the Act being legislated as well as the Voting Rights laws (Gold, 115).