Important Civil Rights Legislation
Civil rights leaders and organizations used many different strategies to push the movement for Black equality forward. One of the most effective tools they used was the law.
One of the first major legal victories was Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. This landmark Supreme Court case ruled unanimously that school segregation was unconstitutional because it violated the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
The case overturned the separate but equal doctrine established in the 1896 Supreme Court ruling Plessy v. Ferguson.
On August 27, 1962, Congress passed the 24th Amendment, which outlawed poll taxes for federal elections. Historically, poll taxes had been used to disenfranchise Black people in the South. African Americans were prevented from exercising their right to vote because they were required to pay a tax, while poor whites were exempted from the tax.
The 24th Amendment ended that practice for federal elections, but it did not apply to state and local elections, nor did it apply to other tactics used to disenfranchise African Americans.
President John F. Kennedy proposed national civil rights legislation before his assassination in 1963.
President Lyndon Johnson used Kennedy's memory along with his considerable political skills to ensure passage of the Civil Rights Act. He signed it into law on July 2, 1964.
The act was a comprehensive and crucial piece of legislation that outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in regards to employment, schools, the right to vote, and access to public places.
Even though Brown v. Board of Education had already announced that segregated schools were illegal, the Civil Rights Act was an important step towards desegregation in all walks of life.
On March 7, 1965, voting rights activists peacefully marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama suffered from extreme violence by state troopers, whose brutality was broadcasted on television. This outraged many and in response, Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965.
While the 24th Amendment prohibited poll taxes for federal elections, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned the use of literary tests as a requirement for voting and directed the Attorney General to challenge the use of poll taxes in state and local elections.
As a result of this law, voter turnout among Black voters increased significantly, especially in the South where voter suppression was rampant. For example, in Mississippi, Black voter turnout increased from 6% in 1964 to 59% just five years later.