Civil Rights Act of 1957
The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was a significant piece of legislation in the United States aimed at addressing racial discrimination, particularly in voting rights for African Americans. Emerging during a pivotal time in the Civil Rights movement, this act sought to combat the systemic barriers that limited electoral participation, such as intimidation and discriminatory registration practices. Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, serving as the Senate majority leader, played a crucial role in advancing the bill through a Congress that had not passed civil rights legislation since 1875.
The act established the Civil Rights Commission to investigate civil rights violations and elevated the Civil Rights Section of the Department of Justice to a division led by an assistant attorney general. It also made voter harassment a federal crime and empowered the attorney general to take legal action against violators. Despite its historical significance, the act's immediate impact was limited, as many challenges to voting persisted in the South. Critics noted that the enforcement mechanisms were insufficient, and it would take additional legislation, such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, to create more robust protections. Nonetheless, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 marked a crucial step in the ongoing struggle for civil rights and underscored the importance of voting as a fundamental aspect of equality.
Civil Rights Act of 1957
During the mid-1950s, the Civil Rights movement gathered momentum as it challenged racial segregation and discrimination in many areas of southern life. One area where progress proved slow was voting rights. Intimidation and irregular registration procedures limited electoral participation by African Americans. By 1957, support for legislation to protect voting rights was growing among Northern Republicans and Democrats in Congress. Yet Congress had not passed a civil rights bill since 1875, and there was strong southern opposition to any change in the status quo. It was, however, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, the Senate majority leader, who took the lead. Not known at this point in his career as an advocate of civil rights, Johnson used his considerable legislative ability to shepherd the new bill through Congress. It passed just as the Little Rock school integration crisis was breaking.
The bill had several major provisions. It created a new body, the Civil Rights Commission, to investigate complaints of violations of civil rights. It raised the Civil Rights Section of the Department of Justice to the status of a division, to be headed by an assistant attorney general. It also made it a federal crime to harass those attempting to vote and allowed the attorney general to initiate proceedings against those violating the law.
The law’s short-term effects were modest. Though the number of African American voters did grow, many impediments to voting remained, especially in the rural South. Many criticized the act’s weak enforcement procedures: The Civil Rights Commission could gather information and investigate complaints, but it could take no action to protect those trying to vote. Not until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would effective machinery for ensuring voting rights be established.
On the other hand, in the early 1960s, the administration of President John F. Kennedy did use the act’s provisions (which were strengthened by the 1960 Civil Rights Act) to proceed against some of the worst cases of harassment. Also the act broke a psychological barrier by putting the first national civil rights law in eighty-two years on the books. It also highlighted the importance of voting rights to the overall civil rights struggle.
Bibliography
Chong, Dennis. Collective Action and the Civil Rights Movement. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2014. Print.
Cook, Robert. Sweet Land of Liberty?: The African-American Struggle for Civil Rights in the Twentieth Century. New York: Routledge, 2013. Print.
Lawson, Steven F. Civil Rights Crossroads: Nation, Community, and the Black Freedom Struggle. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 2015. Print.
Verney, Kevern. Black Civil Rights in America. New York: Routledge, 2012. Print.
Williams, Juan. Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954–1965. New York: Penguin, 2013. Print.