1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
Federal News Network presents a daily update of important moments in the history of the U.S. government.
On this day in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the historic Civil Rights Act in a nationally televised ceremony at the White House. It had been 10 years since the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional and a growing number of supporters backed the Civil Rights movement. President John F. Kennedy had made the bill part of his platform and Johnson served as chairman of the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities. After Kennedy’s assassination, Johnson pushed the bill forward despite heavy opposition in the House of Representative and heated debate in the Senate. It was the most sweeping civil rights legislation passed by Congress since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, and prohibited racial discrimination in employment and education, outlawed racial segregation in public places such as schools, buses, parks and swimming pools, and laid the groundwork for other laws such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
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