Fifty years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, ending unequal voting registration requirements and racial segregation. This historic legislation outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or nationality and was a milestone victory in a long fight to end racial discrimination and segregation.
Today, even as the African American community and many others celebrate how far civil rights have come in the last half-century, civil rights leaders say there is still work to be done. What did the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 mean to Americans? What does it mean today? How has this landmark law affected the United States?
Guests:
Joe Hicks, Vice President of Community Advocates, Inc., a nonprofit organization that advocates innovative approaches to human relations and race relations in Los Angeles city and county; He is former Executive Director of the L.A. City Human Relations Commission (1997 - 2001) under Mayor Richard Riordan
Jamelle Bouie, staff writer in Washington D.C. for Slate, where he covers politics, policy and race