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racial problems facing the United States are remarkably similar to those which confronted
the society a quarter century ago: continuing inequality, a level of poverty among blacks
that is greater than that of any other group, uneasy relations between blacks and the
police, and serious public disagreement over affirmative action, a central policy concern of
the civil rights lobby.

Such recent developments as domestic terrorism and the debate over the country’s
immigration policies have, if anything, directed the public’s attention away from these
racial matters to questions including border control, the problem of illegal immigrants, the
assimilation of Arab Americans, and bias against immigrants from Muslim countries. Yet
even as race declines as a topic of discussion and ethnicity, language, and immigrant
status move to a more prominent place on the American agenda, the laws, policies, and
public attitudes that were shaped by the civil rights protests of an earlier era continue to
play a key role in determining how the new controversies stemming from American
diversity are resolved.

Civil Rights Law

The foundations of today’s civil rights enforcement were set down in three laws adopted
by Congress during the 1960s. Taken together, the laws make discrimination illegal in
practically every aspect of public life.

The most significant of these laws is the Omnibus Civil Rights Act of 1964. More than any
other statute or judicial decision, the Civil Rights Act put in place the core legal guarantees
of equal rights for blacks, other minority groups, and women. In a sweeping fashion, it
established federal authority over aspects of American life that had been governed by the
states since the country’s founding. And it established a precedent for similar civil rights
laws on issues ranging from the rights of homosexuals, the rights of the disabled, the
education of the mentally handicapped, and the sexual harassment of women in the
workplace. The 1964 law bans discrimination on the basis of race, ethnic origin, or gender
in a broad range of institutions and in public accommodations, education, and
employment. The public accommodations provision of the law applies to sites including
hotels, restaurants, and theaters. The act encourages the desegregation of schools and
authorizes the attorney general to file suits to move the desegregation process along. The
section dealing with job discrimination, Title VII, prohibits bias by employers and unions,
and prohibits retaliation against workers who bring claims of bias to the relevant
authorities.1
The second legislative pillar of civil rights protection is the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It
was designed to eliminate practices that minimized black voter participation, which were
widespread in the segregated South at the time. Thus the law banned literacy tests for
prospective voters as well as the requirement to pay a poll tax before being allowed to
vote. The act also extended the authority of the federal government into various aspects of
the political process that were traditionally overseen by the states, at least in those states
with a history of systematic racial discrimination. Important here was a provision that

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