In June 1964, the Most Important Legislation of the 20th Century Passed Congress
My personal memories
One of my strongest memories of the news as an almost 10-year-old in semi-rural North Carolina was the murders of three young civil rights activists -- Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney in Mississippi by the KKK in June 1964.
My mother, a high school English, and social studies teacher, was really upset. Shortly thereafter, she packed her four children in our Duke-blue Pontiac station wagon to drive to Washington to lobby our U.S. Senators — Democrats or more accurately Dixiecrats Sam Ervin and B. Everett Jordan — to support the civil rights bill outlawing segregation. Separate water fountains, bathrooms, restaurants, hotels, and even parts of movie theaters for whites and blacks were pervasive in our area. The bill had been floundering in Congress for years.
Mother marched into the Senate reception room and cornered Senator Jordan, who with courtly manners and a slow Southern drawl hedged how he might vote. In her best school marm scolding, she told him she knew he planned to vote against the bill, but he should be ashamed of himself and instead vote to end such appalling practices.
That legislation, which finally passed Congress in late June, was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in early July 1964. I would argue that it turned out to be the most important legislation in American history. On January 1, 1965, it instantly transformed an entire region of the country by outlawing segregation in hotels, restaurants, and movie theaters.
It also caused a political backlash that continues to this day.
This history shaped the politics of many of us who came of age and awareness in the 1960s. Racial reckoning caused tensions within families. My father and Uncle Pence were unreconstructed Southern segregationists, while my mother and Uncle Mac were ardent integrationists. Mac worked as a crusading SC newspaper editor and later for LBJ’s Justice Department and with Dr. King in Selma. “Must have made for interesting dinner-table conversations at holidays,” a friend quipped.
Actually, no. They steered clear of the topic at big family gatherings, preferring to emphasize what they held in common. In smaller one-on-one conversations with children, they would reveal what they thought and try to influence our opinions. I felt torn among family members that I loved, but also forced by history, culture, and morality to choose which view I felt was correct.
They all mellowed over time, as they really didn’t want to fight with each other.
In declaring the Civil Rights Act of 1964 the most important legislation in American history, am I exaggerating its impact? I put that question to my attorney friend Bruce Johnson, also a history buff.
“I think I agree,” he emailed.
The Homestead Act of 1862 also had a huge impact in creating economic opportunities for average people and in opening up the West.
The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 was the Magna Carta for workers' rights and the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 also had a huge role in creating economic freedom.
The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 laid the foundation for a stable modern economy. The Social Security Act of 1935 and the Medicare and Medicaid Act of 1965 and the Affordable Care Act of 2010 helped create a measure of financial security for tens of millions of people.
The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 also had a huge positive impact on our country. And let's not forget the Lend Lease Act of 1941 which played a huge role in stopping Hitler when we were ill-prepared to resist him.
In a negative way the Federal Indian Removal Act of 1830 had a terrible effect.
The National Recovery Act and companion New Deal measures passed in 1933 helped to rescue us from the Great Depression.
Negatively, the Taft-Hartley of 1947, passed by a Republican Congress over President Truman's veto, delivered a crippling blow to workers' rights.
Positively, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, for which President Kennedy had argued before his death, abolished racial and ethnic quotas for immigrants.And finally (at least for now) the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is one of the most important laws ever enacted.
Boston College Historian Heather Cox Richardson describes how the murder of the three young civil rights activists galvanized the nation in June 1964, leading to the passage of the Civil Rights Act.