Civil Rights Bill

The civil rights bill consists of two separate acts, performed in the years 1964 and 1965. These were the up till now biggest federal acts to end segregation in the southern United States. Both were signed by president Lyndon B. Johnson succeder of president John F. Kennedy who had taken the initiative of ending segregation in the southern United States.

First Part
The first part of the bill was the civil rights act of 1964. The act was proposed by Kennedy but signed by Johnson. The bill was created so the U.S federal government could observe the southern states and intervene if there was signs of racial discrimination or segregation. This bill included:

- Ban on exclusion from public facilities such as restaurants, stores, hotels and sports venues. This meant that colored and white person would eat at the same place in a restaurant, they would use the same bathrooms and they would sit together at sports events.

- Any type of discrimination because of race or religion by employers and labor unions was banned.

- Federal attorney generals could file law suits, speeding the righteous process for those who did nit obey the new laws.

- Inequality in voting rights was permanently banned.

- The Office of Education had to assist in school desegregation.

- The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was created with authority to commence legal proceedings on behalf of workers that had grievances with superiors.

- Discrimination in federal aided programmes was strictly banned.

- The Commission of Civil Rights had greater powers than state rulings.

This act was to guarantee the southern states was unable to segregate the African Americans from being a part of the society. It guaranteed the rights of African Americans to eat at public restaurants, to sit in any seat at a sports stadium. They could no longer be beaten or thrown in jail for mixing with the white population.

Second Part
The second act was the voting rights act of 1965. This was proposed and signed by president Lyndon B. Johnson. The bill was signed to prevent white supremacists in the south from moving around the civil rights act, to find ways of keeping colored people from voting.

This act was smaller than the civil rights act of 1964 but was crated to close loop holes in the latter. It included the following points.

- It became illegal to force voters to take literacy tests to vote.

- Any need to demonstrate an academic achievement to vote was also ruled illegal.

- Any poll taxes required to vote was also banned.

- American citizenship and the individuals name was the only requirement to vote.