July 2, 1964
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law Public Law 88-352, 78 Stat. 241, commonly known at the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
His predecessor, the assassinated John F. Kennedy, had called for such a law in June of the previous year. He did so in the aftermath of many Civil Rights actions, the latest of which was the Birmingham campaign then just concluded, which had included the Children's March and King's Letter from Birmingham Jail.
The original proposal was bottled up in the House after it had been passed out of Judiciary and sent to Rules, chaired by segregationist Howard Smith of Virginia.
After Kennedy's assassination, Johnson called for passage of the bill as the best way of honoring, yet an attempted discharge petition did not get sufficient votes until the Members returned in 1964, those especially in the North having heard from their constituents on the issue.
And then there was
