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The Lyndon B Johnson Civil Rights Act

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My topic is the Lyndon B Johnson Civil Rights Act. I choose this topic because civil rights continue to be a relevant topic years after President Johnson signed the bill. This topic is relevant to taking a stand in history because a lot of people did not agree with Lyndon B. Johnson when he signed the bill, but he was passionate about giving black people the same rights as white people. The civil rights bill was a project years in the making, and after John F. Kennedy’s term, LBJ continued the fight for civil rights. One year after the civil rights act there was a march of many black residents following Martin Luther King, Jr. across a bridge in Selma. When they got to the Edmund Pettus Bridge they were stopped by the police. The police …show more content…

For example, all black people were given the right to vote. However, this basic American right was still denied to many black Americans. At the poles, you either had to take a literacy test or pay a pole tax. A lot of the black people did not know how to read, so this was one way to stop them from voting. Another way they did this was by having a pole tax, a tax you had to pay to vote. Most of the black people did not have jobs, or had very low paying jobs. So, if you could not pay the tax you could not vote. Even if you did get to vote, a lot of people who voted got fired from their …show more content…

They had no right to vote and were openly discriminated against. Even after the bill they were still discriminated against. President Johnson worked to secure rights for all Americans before and after he became President of the United States. Once the bill was signed they were given more rights, but many states and local governments did not enforce them. Black Americans were abused, taunted and forced to use separate bathrooms, parks, and schools. In addition to civil rights, when President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, he also gave all people Medicare . This helped everyone because now all people had health care. This made it to where they did not have to directly pay for it. Overall, President Lyndon B. Johnson was a fighter for all Americans and their right to be treated fairly by their government and their community. He took a stand for equal treatment for all black Americans. Equality that was given to them under the U.S.

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