How did the Civil Rights Act respond to the demands of the civil rights movement?
In 1964 black and white students and other supporters of civil rights conducted Freedom Summer, an effort to register black Mississippians to vote. Three of these students, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney, were murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi. The Democratic Party convention that summer was deeply torn over how to deal with civil rights. When disputes over civil rights disrupted the convention, the party leadership committed itself to supporting equality for black Southerners.
This commitment, and citizen activism across the country in 1964, helped influence Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act. This law prohibited discrimination based on race, religion, sex, or national origin. It thereby guaranteed equal access to all public accommodations, such as buses, restaurants, hospitals rest rooms, and most importantly, jobs. It also created the Civil Rights Commission and the Equality Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce these rights. Also, in this year, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.