Students will analyze some key legislative achievements of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s and recognize that, even after the courts and Congress enacted new civil rights and voting protections during this period, racial discrimination continued and African Americans across the country still lacked access to quality education, well-paid jobs, health care and decent housing.
Essential Knowledge
7.A. The civil rights activism of this period led to several key pieces of federal legislation. These included the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination in public accommodations; the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which extended protections to voters in the South; and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which made housing discrimination illegal.
7.B. The Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education provided a key victory of the movement in outlawing de jure school segregation. But it did not result in widespread, immediate school integration. Many white families withdrew their children from integrating schools, and persistent housing segregation meant many neighborhood schools remained segregated.
7.C. While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made employment discrimination illegal, large labor unions in the North continued racially discriminatory practices well into the 1970s. This long refusal to integrate weakened organized labor and reduced the economic opportunities of American workers.
7.D. While the Voting Rights Act of 1965 made poll taxes, literacy tests and other undue burdens illegal, many districts quickly found other ways to suppress the vote of African American citizens—even before several protections afforded by the Voting Rights Act were overturned by the Supreme Court in the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision.
7.E. After key elements of the Voting Rights Act were overturned by the Supreme Court in the 2013 case Shelby County v. Holder, states across the country began passing laws that restricted access to the ballot. Activists today continue to actively fight voter restrictions that disproportionately affect voters of color.
7.F. While the 1968 Fair Housing Act made housing legally accessible to African Americans, economic barriers and hostility to integration persisted. Federally mandated housing policies created intentionally segregated communities, and many neighborhoods were organized so that their schools were entirely white.
7.G. Persistent and profound economic and social inequality continued across the country. The summers of the late 1960s saw a series of urban uprisings in places like Los Angeles’ Watts neighborhood and Detroit.
Related Resources
- [7.A.] For an introduction to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, students can watch a short video from the Library of Congress, “NAACP Lawyer Constance Baker Motley Interviewed by Renee Poussaint in 2002.” In it, Motley discusses her experience at the March on Washington and the impact of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
- [7.A.] To learn more about the processes the Civil Rights Act of 1964 created for investigating civil rights violations, students can read a document from the Library of Congress’ Voices of Civil Rights Project, a “Letter From Randa Jo Downs” in which she describes her father’s work investigating hospitals for Title VI violations after the passage of the act.
- [7.A.] Even after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, many organizers continued pushing for economic equality for African Americans. Students can read the 1966 report “Greenville Air Base: What Happened, and Why,” about a Mississippi “live-in,” which describes the dire economic conditions facing many Black Mississippians and their continued attempts to change those conditions.
- [7.A.] For an explanation of the context and content of the Voting Rights Act of 1965—and to recognize how movement veterans like John Lewis saw the act as a direct result of grassroots activism—students can pair parts of an interview with Lewis with an excerpt from the YA version of One Person, No Vote by Carol Anderson and Tonya Bolden. LFJ’s “Teach This: The Voting Rights Act” links to both and recommends questions for student reflection and discussion.
- [7.A.] To help students understand the role of women activists in pushing for fair housing, recognize the national need that prompted the 1968 Fair Housing Act and break down the contents of the act itself, educators can use the lesson “Vel Phillips and the Struggle for Fair Housing,” developed by the Wisconsin Historical Society.
- [7.B.] In 1974, the Supreme Court majority struck down a federal decision to help desegregate schools in Michigan. Students can read Justice William O. Douglas’ dissenting opinion in Milliken v. Bradley to better understand the role of the government in creating and maintaining segregated school districts long after Brown.
- [7.B.] For teaching about education inequality beyond the South, review the Rethinking Schools article “The Largest Civil Rights Protest You’ve Never Heard Of,” which introduces the 1964 New York City school boycott—in which nearly half of the city’s K-12 students stayed home to protest the absence of quality, integrated schools for all. The article also recommends strategies for teaching the boycott and links to lesson plans.
- [7.C.] The 1959 Commentary article “Labor Unions and the Negro: The Record of Discrimination” by NAACP Labor Director Herbert Hill can help students trace the history of racism within unions.
- [7.D.] In 2006, the 1965 Voting Rights Act was amended to acknowledge the progress made toward ensuring the right to vote for all citizens while also addressing continued obstacles for voters. Students can read the text of the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 to get a better sense of the limits of the Voting Rights Act.
- [7.D.] For an example of the ways Black voters were disenfranchised even after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, read the Zinn Education Project’s resource “Lowndes County and the Voting Rights Act.”
- [7.E.] To see how politicians framed this fight against voter restrictions—and how some drew clear connections to the Black freedom struggle—students can read the ABC News article “‘The New Jim Crow’: Republicans and Democrats at Odds Over Voting Rights.”
- [7.E.] For recommendations of ways to teach 21st-century voter suppression, educators can see the LFJ collection Lessons: Voter Suppression.
- [7.F.] Retro Report’s mini-documentary “Fair Housing” offers an introduction to the 1968 Fair Housing Act and stresses some of the ways that, without adequate enforcement, the legislation has fallen short of its intended goals.
- [7.F.] To understand one of the ways housing discrimination operated after the Fair Housing Act, read the 1972 Philadelphia Tribune article “Homeowners Picket FHA Officials Over Broken-Down Homes, Unkept Promises.” The article explains how the Federal Housing Administration failed to fund repairs promised to Black homeowners.
- [7.F.] To learn more about how housing segregation continued after the Fair Housing Act, students can watch Brick by Brick: A Civil Rights Story, a 2007 documentary film produced and directed by Bill Kavanagh. The story follows three Yonkers, New York, families from the 1970s to the 1990s as they navigate a protracted and bitter confrontation in the city over housing and school desegregation. The film’s website also includes resources.
- [7.G.] To better understand this era, read the 2017 New York Times story “Five Days of Unrest That Shaped, and Haunted, Newark.” It offers an introduction to the 1967 uprising in Newark and includes short reflections from a number of people who lived there at the time, as well as excerpts from the newspaper’s reporting more than 50 years ago.
- [7.G.] In the direct aftermath of urban uprisings, many community organizations formed to address issues affecting their areas. For a sense of where these organizations focused and how they encouraged community members to join, review a post-1967 Northwest Community Organization pamphlet from Detroit, available through the archives of Wayne State University.
