public law 88-352

Originally proposed by John Fitzgerald Kennedy in June of the previous year but forestalled by a filibuster in the US Senate, his successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson, pushed forward the legislation and signed the anti-discrimination Civil Rights Act, rigorously debated but eventually approved by Congress, on this day in 1964. Aside from outlawing difference in treatment or preference based on heritage, religious background or sex, the eleven entitlements of the act guarantee uniform application to voting rights and burdens of exercising them, prohibits segregation, promotes equal employment opportunities and affirms and improves upon prior similar legislation by providing a host of evaluation and enforcement measures.