The 1964 Civil Rights Act affected me in many ways. To fully understand how the 1964 Civil Rights Act affected me, you must first know some information about it. There were many hard times in 1964. The 1964 Civil Rights Act was not brought about easily by one person, but was instead a culmination of many great men. The following will describe the 1964 Civil Rights Act and explain how I as well as everyone else was affected by it.
Baby Boomers were graduating from high school in 1964, some of them to march fresh-faced into battle in Vietnam and come home in body bags. They were emerging into an uncertain world that was rapidly changing.
In South Carolina and Georgia, their graduation ceremonies underscored resistance to change. A decade had passed since the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled against "separate-but-equal" schools, but schools in both states remained segregated, as did most of life's activities. The graduating classes of 1964 were either black or white, not mixed.
The year would be almost over before "White" and "Colored" signs were removed
from Augusta's public water fountains. They remained on restroom doors, however, and
hospitals remained segregated. Augusta hired its first black policemen, but they were not
Racial issues and racial conflicts dominated the year, often violently. Three civil
rights workers, attempting to register blacks to vote, were murdered in Mississippi in
June. Seven of the 21 people arrested in connection with the crime were convicted in
Southern senators were filibustering in Congress against a civil rights bill that
would make discrimination illegal in public accommodations, the workplace and schools.
They held out for 75 days before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. South
Carolina's U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond was outspoken. "This is a tragic day for America
when Negro agitators, spurred on by communist enticements to promote racial strife, can
cau...