Summer 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 and my father packed their four children in our Duke-blue Pontiac station wagon to drive to Washington to lodge in one room at the Harry Smith Motel in Alexandria, VA with the idea of touring the nation's capital.

My mother also had the idea of lobbying 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. He smiled smarmily and drawled that he would consider her views. “No you won’t,” she retorted.

Civil rights legislation finally passed Congress in late June, and 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 family gatherings, preferring to emphasize what they held in common. My father's family thought my mother's family's views were “peculiar,” whispering that they were “scaliwags,” or collaborators with Yankees.

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?

Those of us born in the 1950s and earlier in the South remember the cruelty of segregation and those memories made an indelible impression.

I put the question of the paramount historical significance of the 1964 CRA to my attorney friend Bruce Johnson, also a history buff.

“I think I agree,” he emailed.