The Civil Rights Act Of 1964

What did the act do, anyway? "LBJ’s Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination on the basis of race or gender in all hiring, firing, and promoting by their employers. The bill also gave federal government the authority to desegregate racial divided public spaces and pushed forward the effort to desegregate schools. It’s credited with speeding the eventual demise of America’s Jim Crow segregation system, commonly viewed as beginning in 1883 when the Supreme Court ruled the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which prohibited discrimination in trains, hotels, and other public locations, was not permitted by the 13th or 14th Amendments and unconstitutional. LBJ’s bill was the first since to forbid discrimination in the workplace and public places." Alexandra Dukakis in ABC News.

Explainer: 5 things to know about the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Jesse J. Holland in the Associated Press.

Explainer: Civil Rights Act of 1964: The numbers. Jessica Sparks in The Wall Street Journal.

Interview: How the Civil Rights Act of 1964 changed the South's economy. Danielle Kurtzleben in Vox.

50 years later, Americans see progress on race. "More than three in four Americans, including most whites and blacks, think the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act was a very important event in U.S. history....Nearly eight in 10 Americans think there's been real progress since the 1960s in getting rid of racial discrimination....The percentage that says progress has been made has remained fairly consistent in recent years, but it has increased nearly 30 points since 1992. But few — just 5 percent — think all of the goals of Martin Luther King and the 1960s civil rights movement have been achieved....Moreover, most Americans say discrimination against blacks exists today, and blacks are far more likely than whites to think it is pervasive. " Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto and Fred Backus in CBS News.

Charts: Conservatives say the U.S. has done enough to create equality for blacks. Young liberals agree. Emily Badger in The Washington Post.