Congress Passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964
The most sweeping civil rights law since Reconstruction outlaws segregation in public accommodations and workplace discrimination
Quick facts
- Signed by
- President Lyndon B. Johnson
- Date
- July 2, 1964
- Key provision
- Title VII created the EEOC
What happened
President Kennedy proposed civil rights legislation in June 1963; after his assassination, President Lyndon Johnson pushed it through Congress, overcoming a 60-day Senate filibuster before a 73-27 cloture vote. The House approved the Senate's version and Johnson signed it into law on July 2, 1964, hours after passage and, the National Park Service notes, on what would have been Medgar Evers's 39th birthday. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination in public accommodations such as restaurants, hotels, and theaters, banned discrimination in federally funded programs, and, under Title VII, created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce a new ban on employment discrimination by race, sex, religion, color, or national origin. The National Archives holds the signed act as a milestone document.
Why it matters
The act ended legal segregation in public life nationwide, not just in the states that had lost individual court cases, and Title VII's employment protections extended the law's reach into private workplaces for the first time.
How we know
The National Archives preserves the enrolled act itself, and the National Park Service documents the Senate cloture vote and signing timeline from the Congressional Record.
Sources
- National Archives. Civil Rights Act (1964) · Primary source (author-declared)archives.gov · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- National Park Service. Civil Rights Act of 1964 · Reputable sourcenps.gov · The domain "nps.gov" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Part of a timelineThe Civil Rights Movement30 events · How a movement built on churches, students, and lawyers dismantled legal segregation in America and split over how far nonviolence could carry itView all →