The Civil Rights Documentation Project: July 1964

The Civil Rights Documentation Project 1964Sponsored by The Dirksen Congressional Center

Leaders of the March on Washington, August 29, 1963. Credit: Robert W. Kelley/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
Hundreds of people from all over the country walk during the famous five-day civil rights march between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, March 1965. Credit: Charles Moore, Civil Rights Photographer
Picketers calling for integration of St. Louis public schools. Credit: Bettmann/Corbis
Black college student Dorothy Bell, 19, of Birmingham, Alabama, waits at a downtown Birmingham lunch counter for service that never came, April 4, 1963. She was later arrested with 20 others in sit-in attempts. Credit: AP Photo
Fire Department aims high-pressure water hoses at civil rights demonstrators, Birmingham, Alabama, May 1963. Credit: Charles Moore, Civil Rights Photographer
Police dogs attack protestors. Credit: AP Photo/Bill Hudson
Rev. Ralph Abernathy, left, and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., are removed by a policeman as they led a line of demonstrators into the business section of Birmingham, Alabama, on April 12, 1963. Credit: AP Photo
Vivian Malone and James Hood enter University of Alabama in 1963. Miss Malone received bachelor of science degree, but Hood dropped out in summer 1963. Credit: AP Newsfeatures Photo
Attorney General Robert Kennedy uses a bullhorn to address black demonstrators at the Justice Department, on June 14, 1963. The demonstrators marched to the White House, then to the District Building, and wound up at the Justice Department. Credit: AP Photo/stf

July 2, 1964

Shortly after 2:00 p.m., the House cleared H.R. 7152 for President Johnson’s signature when it adopted, by a 289-126 (with one voting present) roll call vote, H. Res. 789 to approve the bill as amended. Republicans favored it 136 to 35; Democrats supported it, 153-91.

"Already the second invasion of the Southland has begun," complained Chairman Smith bitterly. "Hordes of beatniks, misfits and agitators from the North, with the admitted aid of the Communists, are streaming into the Southland mischief-bent, backed and defended by other hordes of federal marshals, federal agents and federal power."

Once the vote was taken, Speaker McCormack signed the official copy of H.R. 7152 and gave it to a clerk who carried to the Senate. There, Carl Hayden, president pro tempore, affixed his signature.

Following congressional action, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (PL 88-352). The signing ceremony was broadcast nationwide on television at 6:45 p.m. from the East Room of the White House.

The president used more than 70 pens, dipping each in an inkwell, to sign the bill. He gave the first pen to Dirksen, the second to Humphrey.

President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (video)
Link to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK2GdOxz3s0
From YouTube

“Radio and Television Remarks Upon Signing the Civil Rights Bill” (audio included)
Link to: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=26361&st=&st1=#axzz2fjczQYF1
From The Public Papers of the President, The American Presidency Project

The legislation contained new provisions to help guarantee blacks the right to vote; guaranteed access to public accommodations such as hotels, motels, restaurants, and places of amusement; authorized the federal government to sue to desegregate public facilities and schools; extended the life of the Civil Right Commission for four years and gave it new powers; provided that federal funds could be cut off where programs were administered discriminatorily; required most companies and labor unions to grant equal employment opportunity; established a new Community Relations Service to help work out civil rights problems; required the Census Bureau to gather voting statistics by race; and authorized the Justice Department to enter into a pending civil rights case.

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