These laws forced whites and African Americans to live separately; African Americans received second-class treatment throughout the region. The nation was visibly not living up to its ideal as a democracy based on justice. The movement forced congress to take action, which it did through the 1964 civil rights act. This law made it illegal to spate people based on race, colour, or national origin in almost all areas of public life such as Clubs, bars, restaurant’s, toilets and many other public areas. Life for the African American people slightly started to improve. In 1954 reverend Brown won the right to send his child to a white school where the education was ten times better than what it was at a black school. The civil rights movement gave African Americans the right to legal equality. The civil rights act (1964) outlawed segregation in schools, public places and in the workplace. The voting rights act (1965) gave black people the right to vote. The fair housing act (1968) banned discrimination in housing. However after all of this African Americans did not achieve economic …show more content…
The act significantly widened the franchise and is considered among the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history. During the civil rights movement in the 1960’s voting rights activists in the south were subjected to various forms of mistreatment and violence. One event that outraged many American occurred on March 7, 1965, when peaceful participants in a voting rights march form Selma, Alabama, to the state capital in Montgomery were met by Alabama state troopers who attacked them with nightsticks, tear gas and whips after they refuse to turn back. Some protestors were severely beaten, and other ran for their lives. The incident was captured on national television. It was an eye opener for