Question

1. Major events that have shaped the African American culture. This could include both domestic and international events, depending on the group you are researching.

Ideas: Slavery, Civil War, Segregation, Martin Luther King Jr and his death, Desegregation, Police Brutality

Answer 1

The introduction of Title VII in America, is itself significant in terms of its History and Background. It has attempted to make the American culture more committed to respect humans as they are and attempting to make the public more civilized in the society.

The Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, 1964 came in force on 02 July, 1964 establishing the civil rights and US labor laws. The most important Title governing the discrimination was the Title VII that made any employment discrimination illegal on the basis of gender, race, nationality, religion or color. Title VII of the act created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to enforce laws that prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or age in hiring, promoting, firing, setting wages, testing, training, apprenticeship, and all other terms and conditions of employment. Race, color, sex, creed, and age are now protected classes.

The background and history of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, 1964 were as under:

• The Act came into force when the then President, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Act at the White House on July 2, 1964 which became a landmark event for the civil rights and labor laws in the US.
• This bill was initiated by the former President, John F. Kennedy, in the year 1963, in his Report to the American People on Civil rights, to grant more protection to the citizens of the country with their rights to vote. Further, he advocated for the civil rights to be served at all the common public places such as in restaurants, theaters, etc.
• In 1963, owing to the civil unrest especially due to the racial tensions that cropped in the country, due to the repercussions of the Birmingham campaign, compelled Kennedy to act on these rights.
• Kennedy emulated the civil rights of 1875, and few of the inclusions in his provisions were the ban of using the public facilities based on any discrimination amongst the citizens and also involvement the Attorney Generals in the lawsuits dealing with the State Government cases.
• On 13 July, 1963, the Senate Minority and Majority leaders seconded Kennedy’s legislation other than the provision that gave equal access to all the citizens to use the Public accesses which eventually led to the drafting of a compromise bill by the Republican Congressmen.
• On 19 July, 1963, the Original bill was moved to Congress by the President stating that the bill was essential which first went to the House of Representatives and referred to the judiciary committee and post hearings, the act was strengthened with further provisions added to it that dealt with ban on racial discriminations in employment, more protection to the black voters and giving a green signal to the accessibility of the public places without any discrimination.
• However, after the assassination of Kennedy in November, 1963, Lyndson Johnson succeeded as the President and he supported the bill as well based on his legislative experiences.
• The Judiciary Committee filed a petition to discharge the bill from the Rules of Committee owing to the support required by the Majority of the House members to move the same.
• With more apprehensions from the Congressmen to sign the bill itself, the chairman of the committee found it challenging to avail the signatures to move the bill and by the Winter recess, 50 more signatures were needed to pass the same.
• But since the public opinion in the North supported the bill, the same was passed through the rules committee in order to avoid the embarrassment of a successful discharge petition.
• This civil rights Act was supported by the Leadership Conference on Civil rights which was a collaborated efforts of various labor and liberal organizations.
• Later, the Senate majority leader, Mike Mansfield took the approach to expedite the passing of the Civil Rights Act in the Senate as wished for by the President. In some complex process, he managed to propose that the bill be sent to the Senate for further considerations.
• When the same came on debate on 30 March, 1964, it was resisted by the Democratic senators and one Republican Senator. Hence later, the compromise bill was substituted that was weaker in terms of conducting a private business but got its consideration from the House for the legislation.
• Thus on June 19, the compromised bill was passed with 73-27 vote by the Senate and subsequently, through the House-Senate Conference committee to adopt to the Senate version of the Bill.
• Finally the bill was passed by both houses of the Congress and signed by President Johnson to enact the same of July 2, 1964.