>> c-span takes you onto the road to the white house and into the classroom. this year, our student cam documentary contest asks students to tell us what issues they want to hear from the presidential candidates. road to then's white house coverage and get all the details about our student cam contest at c-span.org. >> each week, american history tvs american artifacts visits museums and historic places. up next, we visit the library of congress on capitol hill to learn about an exhibittvs amerig the 50th anniversary of the civil rights act of 1964. >> good morning, i am the african-american history specialist for the manuscript division of the library of congress and one of the curators for the library exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the civil rights

act of 1954 entitled the civil rights act of 1964, a long struggle for freedom. the exhibit takes its subtitle from the speech that president lyndon johnson read before the nation upon the signing of the act on july 2, 1964. the u.s. constitution did not ask me mention slavery, but there are at least three references to slavery in the document.

the history of the u.s. is a series of federal laws that paves the way for the federal tohts act of mention 64 present a concurrent history of the 20th century civil rights movement that includes accounts , organizations, and events that shaped the movement, as well as examples of music, literature, and visual arts that were inspired by the mu -- movement. they tell the story of the epic of the civil rights act of 1964 in congress including an expiration of the legislative process and legislative strategy, the tactics that were employed. to employ -- explore the impact of the civil rights act on american life and law from 1964 until the present. we will begin in the prologue

section which provides a historical backdrop for race relations in the united states from the colonial. 1899.onial period to we will first look at a copy of the united states can't -- constitution. the u.s. constitution did not ,xplicitly mentioned slavery but there are at least three references to slavery in the document when it was ratified. the first is the 3/5 compromise. slaves were counted as you and the person for purposes of appropriating seats in the house of representatives.

thereby increasing the power of the slave states and congress. the constitution also included a fugitive slave laws. he was used to ensure the return of runaway slaves. in addition, the u.s. constitution prohibited the import slaves after 1808. but the language did not refer to african. the inclusion of these clauses in the nation's founding document is a testament to economic and political influence. moving to related document, this is the contract dust between thomas jefferson and james madison were the sale of the slave john freeman area jefferson freed him from william baker in maryland and eight or. on the condition that he would

be set free after 11 years of service. he returned unsold freeman to james madison. after madison friedman did receive his freedom. he served as the white house service. moving into the segregation era exit as the founding document of the naacp. disenfranchised and interracial violence. this flag was first flown in 1920 outside the unit orders. -- headquarters. it marked every time a person

was lynched. they organized a national negro conference. they made a call for it on february the 12th, 1909. mayollows the conference in , the second anniversary of the meeting of the conference area they swarmed a group to organize to form a permanent organization. the group was called the , alsoal negro committee known as the committee of 40.

the group decided on the name of the organization, the national association for the advancement of colored people. abolitions were the of segregation discrimination, disenfranchisement, racial violence, particularly, lynching. here, we have one of the prominent and unique items on display in the exhibit, the naacp's lynching flag. flown in it was first 1920 outside of the ends -- at 69 5thquarters avenue to mark every time a person was lynched. it was part of the naacp anti-lynching campaign. it included the publication of the pamphlet, 30 years of lynching in 1919. the advertisement that the naacp

took in 1922 in both the new york times and the atlantic journal-constitution entitled the shame of america in which a full page ad was listing the number of lynching's to date in 1922. then, the segregation era section, we have included a so 's primary focus was giallo opportunity. in 1925, he organized the rutherford of sleeping carpenters. after a 12 year struggle and favorable new labor legislation he was able to negotiate a bargaining agreement with the pullman palace car company it

was the first such agreement between a black union in a major american company. the agreement launched him and the national civil rights leader. also the brotherhood provided black labor with a solid foundation on which to challenge racial discrimination. the members of the union were also instrumental in supporting his various mass demonstrations and movements with both their labor and their money. in the world war ii in postwar years section, we focus on the tearing down of racial barriers in a variety of areas that served as building blocks for the full scale assault against segregation in the 1950's and

1960's. we start with randolph's famous march that didn't happen in 1941. he threatened to nasa hundred -- two mass as much as 100,000 african-americans on washington unless there was an effort made by the roosevelt administration to include the hiring of african-americans and independents in the national defense industry. franklin roosevelt issued executive order 88 banning discrimination and defense industries. setting up an appointment practices committee to monitor

hiring client. -- hiring compliance. the naacp is long legal strategy to challenge segregation culminated in the brown versus the board of education decision in 1954. we have here representing the case one of the original briefs for the case. this is for the argument in hearing that occurred in december 1952. then featured in this case are ims from -- items from the reservoir collection. it's on a ten-year loan from the foundation to the library. we have in the center these instructions that rosa parks

wrote to help alleviate problems that were occurring between drivers and riders that were organized to help support the montgomery bus boycott. rosa parks served on the board of the montgomery improvement association which established to direct the boycott for about a month she served as a dispatcher and itas her job calls from writers looking for pickups. and to coordinate those with the drivers of private cars and station wagons.

we also have from the rosa parks collection is date on from the montgomery fair department store to date but for 1955. he repurposed it to keep notes about the bus boycott in 1956. in the state that we have the list of drivers and addresses of naacp not members. it was to the court cases witnesses that appeared in the court cases. then we will proceed into civil rights act of 1964 section, this section formed the heart of the exhibit. supplied the rotunda of the capital.

it covers the. january 1, 1954 to july 2 1964. it covers the passage the civil rights will in the house the passage of the bill in the senate, and president johnson signing the bill into law in 1964. this section is organized around a series of letters written between the executive director of the the and the executive director of the naacp.

this is a drawing from howard brody who was a renowned world war ii combat illustrator. he worked as a courtroom artist for cbs news. cameras and sketch pads were barred from the senate chamber when the debate was occurring. howard brody to go into the chamber, memorize what he saw and then go out and sketch it. this particular sketchy gives you a cross-section of the many americans that afforded the -- supported the passage of this law that came every day to visual in the gallery. we have members of the clergy

can see nuns. young in all black and white. the exhibit takes its subtitle from the speech that president johnson read before the nation on live television on the evening of july the second 1964. this is the copy that was put into the teleprompter. >> my fellow americans, i'm about to sign into law the civil rights act of 1964. i want to take this occasion to talk to you about what that law mean to every american. 188 years ago this week, small band of valiant men began long struggle for freedom.

>> he did six drafts of the speech and then he added to bring his sling the word long. -- extemporaneously the word long. it indicated the many decade centuries in the slow progression towards real-life civil rights. the bill began as a combination of the struggles of decades of african-americans, when it was passed it encompassed all americans. it encompassed everyone regardless of race color sex or national origin, it's really about the ongoing struggle in the country to achieve a more perfect union. >> we can understand how this all happened. but it cannot continue.

our constitution, the foundation of our republic the principles of our freedom forbid it. mortality for bids it. the law i will sign tonight for bids it. >> i'm here to introduce you to the personalities of the civil rights act. one of the people i want to point out is howard smith. of therepresentative chair of the house ways committee. before a bill can be debated by the house, the house rules committee has to set a resolution governing the terms of the debate. the reason for that is because the house is so big, they can't just have a free-form debate.

representative smith was a segregationist. that is, he was not in favor of the 64 civil rights act. when a typically did civil rights bill came into his committee was retired to his farm in virginia. time, because the 64 civil rights act was advocated for by president johnson as a tribute , to the slain president kennedy , he was under considerable political pressure to do something. he knew he had to report it out of his committee. before he did so, he added something to an amendment, title vii. title vii protects against employment discrimination. he added sex as a project -- protective category to title vii. he thought that wouldn't pass. it actually did pass. title vii outlaws employment description by businesses on the sex,ess -- basis of

national origin, race, color, religion. i also want to point out another point. once the bill arrives in the senate it is subject to a filibuster. the leader of the democrats was richard russell. interesting thing about him is he actually was lyndon johnson mentor. you look appear on the wall, you will see that although he was a mentor, by the time johnson was president their relationship but obviously slayed. russell led filibuster against the civil rights act. the democrats knew that they could not break the filibuster without enlisting the support of the republicans.

to enlist the support of the republicans, they had to go to this man, the senate minority leader. they needed him and his republican to vote in favor of closure to end the filibuster and ultimately pass the legislation. after adding some amendment to title vii he threw his support hundred 64 civil rights act. he ultimately pass the act. as they are working on the act, it is important to point out the context of the social history of the time. a lot of people were distraught -- to satisfied with the slow progress of the bill. outside on the street you have more militant groups advocating for stronger measures is the civil rights. particularly malcolm x who gave

his bullet speech in detroit. this comic to pick hubert humphrey trying to shelter political support for the civil rights bill against the backlash that was coming out from extremist demonstrations on the street. that threaten support for the bill. talking about the content of the 64 civil rights act, starting with voting rights in title i this is important because following the reconstruction demise, many states would implement title ii was a huge one of yours. this helped put an end to that and set the stage for the 1965 voting rights act which went further. with theis familiar

lunch counter protest where you had segregated lunch counters and students would have sit and stew ultimately advocate to desegregate the lunch counters. they would get arrested and another group would come in and get arrested. what title ii does -- it prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in places of accommodation including lunch counters, movie theaters, places of entertainment, hotels. this is significant because in 1875, there was a provision to desegregate public accommodations. it was struck down by the supreme court. a many ways, title ii is resumption of reconstruction. here is title iii. title iii allows the justice department to directly intervene

to to segregate facilities that are operated by a state government. this was externally and almostal appeared and 57 civil rights act. here, it finally appears in the 64 civil rights act. desegregation of public education, here again, this is empowering the federal government to directly seek -- go directly to a district court to seek to segregation of the school. of course, this was very controversial because many of the states were turned to maintain control of the schools and keep them segregated. this empowers the federal government to take action. total -- title v extends the rights of the civil rights commission which basically is able to investigate protection in different areas like boating education, housing, employment accommodations, transportation.

of course, a lot of programs received federal support. you might ask yourself why should a program receive federal support that is actually discriminating --? the it does is allow us federal government to cut off aid to federally funded programs that discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin. vii, we moved to title which deals with equal employment opportunities. discussedoned when i howard smith, the chair of the house rules committee, this added sex to protection from employment discrimination and howard smith thought that would weaken the bill and it wouldn't pass. it actually did pass. title vii outlaws employment discrimination by businesses on

the basis of race, color, sex, national origin and created equal opportunity employment commission also known as the eeoc. eight empowers the defense bureau to collect voting statistics based on race, color, and national origin. ix permits the united states to intervene. this is particularly important because if a state -- if a case was removed to a federal court and was dealing with civil rights and then was remanded back to a state court where civil rights might not receive as favorable of treatment, that remanded to the state court is now reviewable under title ix. deals with the establishment of the community relations service which can mediate disputes and takes a

softer approach to mediating disputes based on race, color, national origin, such as one of these cases where a case was referred to the community where they putce up a sign of speaking a foreign mileage at a bar. the community relations service worked to work that out. now, finally, we are on title 11, court proceedings and legalities. this says that abstaining from criminal intent, the accused can get a trial by jury. this was her a controversial and this was a compromise that was critical to passing the act because many opponents of the building not want a jury trial under the civil rights act because they thought that certain juries would not be amenable to civil rights and were not convict. the civil rights act is an

honestly important. it is the resumption of what ended in reconstruction. in 1877, you had a presidential contest. that shifted to rutherford hayes who became president. in exchange for that, he agreed to withdraw federal troops from the south. what the end of reconstruction -- with the end of reconstruction, you had a lot of states rolling back post civil war with regard to african-american rights. accommodations are going to be segregated, it is one to be difficult for african-americans to vote in many places because there is going to be unequal qualifications. they are not going to be of the as otherame jobs americans. the 64 civil rights act is absolutely vital and reek -- in restarting reconstruction and

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