Civil Rights During The Johnson Administration 1963 1969

Download or read book Civil Rights During the Johnson Administration 1963-1969 written by and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson marked the high point of one of America's greatest reform movements--the struggle for racial equality. After decades of filing petitions in the courts and legislatures, a strategy which had brought significant but limited results, civil rights activists stepped up their protests by daring to confront racial discrimination through marches, boycotts, sit-ins, and other forms of civil disobedience. Shortly after Johnson took office following John F. Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, nonviolent demonstrations helped prick the conscience of the nation and forced the federal government to turn its attention toward eliminating racial segregation. Inheriting from his slain predecessor a strong civil rights bill that was meandering through Congress, Johnson in 1964 directed passage of this landmark measure cracking Jim Crow in public accommodations and education. Over the next four years, the Johnson administration added the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Law of 1968 to its remarkable legislative achievements. Indeed, by 1969, the "Second Reconstruction" of the South had reached its peak and had reshaped legal and political relations between the races.