The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States, signed into law on 2 July 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in employment, public accommodations, federally assisted programs, and other domains. It is widely regarded as one of the most consequential pieces of domestic legislation in American history, fundamentally altering the legal relationship between the federal government, private actors, and individual civil rights.
The Act emerged from decades of organized civil rights activism and the political crisis precipitated by high-profile resistance to desegregation in the South. President John F. Kennedy introduced the legislation in June 1963; following his assassination, Johnson pressed Congress to pass it as a memorial to Kennedy and a fulfillment of longstanding civil rights demands. The bill faced a filibuster lasting approximately 60 days in the Senate - the longest in Senate history at the time - before passing with bipartisan support. For a fuller account, see Civil Rights Act of 1964 - History.
The Act is organized into eleven titles, each addressing a distinct domain. Not all titles are summarized here.
Subsequent legislation, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, extended civil rights protections into areas the 1964 Act did not fully address.
While the Act's core prohibitions are not seriously contested, a number of questions arising from its interpretation and application remain active areas of legal and political dispute.
The scope of Title VII has been repeatedly litigated. In Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), the Supreme Court held that Title VII's prohibition on sex discrimination encompasses discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. This ruling is accepted by some as a straightforward textual interpretation and criticized by others as a departure from the original meaning of “sex” as understood in 1964. See Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Bostock Debate.
The relationship between anti-discrimination law and religious liberty has produced sustained legal conflict, particularly where business owners assert a conscience-based objection to serving certain customers or participating in certain events. See Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Religious Liberty Debate.
Title II's application to private businesses - and the constitutional authority under the Commerce Clause used to justify it - was contested at the time of passage and has been revisited periodically in legal and philosophical literature. See Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Public Accommodations Viewpoint.
The Act's relationship to affirmative action and group-based remedies is contested. Some interpret Title VII as prohibiting any classification by race in employment; others argue remedial race-conscious policies are consistent with or required by the Act's purposes. See Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Affirmative Action Debate.
There is broad legal and historical consensus that the Act is constitutionally valid under the Commerce Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment, as affirmed in Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States (1964) and Katzenbach v. McClung (1964). Historians broadly agree the Act substantially altered employment and public accommodation practices in the United States, though the relative weight of legal versus economic and social causes of change is debated. See Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Historical Consensus and Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Legal Consensus.