July 2, 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The act outlawed unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace, and by facilities that served the general public. It invalidated many of the Jim Crow laws in the south. Initial powers of enforcement were weak, but they were strengthened in later years. Books that chronicle the times leading up to the passage and the politics involved include “To End All Segregation: The Politics of the Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964” (1990) and “The Civil Rights Act of 1964: The Passage of the Law That Ended Racial Segregation” (1997).
