BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for July 2.

Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.

In the landmark 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional.

The 10 years that followed saw great strides for the African American civil rights movement, as non-violent demonstrations won thousands of supporters to the cause.  Led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights movement had been gathering force.

John F. Kennedy made passage of a new civil rights bill one of the platforms of his successful 1960 presidential campaign.

In early 1964, House supporters overcame the Rules Committee obstacle by threatening to send the bill to the floor without committee approval. 

Passage of the act was not easy. House opposition bottled up the bill in the House Rules Committee. In the Senate, Southern Democratic opponents attempted to talk the bill to death. The act outlawed segregation in businesses such as theaters, restaurants, and hotels. 

It banned discriminatory practices in employment and ended segregation in public places such as swimming pools, libraries, and public schools.

This document was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction.

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