On this day in 1964,

LBJ SIGNS CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964

On this day in 1964, Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the historic Civil Rights Act in a nationally televised ceremony at the White House, the most sweeping civil rights legislation passed by Congress since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era.  The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited racial discrimination in employment and education and outlawed racial segregation in public places such as schools, buses, parks and swimming pools.  The bill also led the way for a number of other pieces of civil rights legislation – including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which set strict rules for protecting the right of African Americans to vote – that have since been used to enforce equal rights for women as well as all minorities.