Civil Rights Legislation Main Idea Chart

In this assignment, you will be learning about key legislation that helped advance
civil rights. For this assignment, you will be using online resources to collect all your
information. The use of other sources will give you a 0 on this assignment. The sources will
be listed on the bottom of this page. You will have to create a main idea chart. For this
assignment, you will have to figure out what the main idea of the information given is and
clearly state it at the top of the chart. The legislations given should then support the main
idea. The main idea has to incorporate all three pieces of legislation. If the main idea only
fits one piece of legislation then you will lose points.
As you go through the webpage, I want you to read through it first. I want you to get
an understanding of the legislation before you start filling out your chart. After you have
done your first reading, I want you to read it again, and this time look for important
information. I want you to write down the date of when it was passed, who the president that
passed the legislation was, what it did, and what it changed. Your chart must have this
information but you must also have other pieces of information that you found important
in order to gain full credit. You can use bullet points and list out important information or
you can write full sentences. Some of the sites have a video embedded, watch the video; it
puts the legislation in context.
The final thing you have to do is write a reflection. The reflection should be 1 to 2
paragraphs in length stating your thoughts on the pieces of legislation. You must
incorporate into your reflection a statement on what you think the future of civil rights is.
Do you think that these pieces of legislation ended the fight for civil rights? Did they solve
all the problems? Are there any problems you think need to still be addressed? What
pieces of legislation would you pass into law that would impact civil rights? You must
answer the questions listed above but also feel free to add anything else to your reflection that
you feel is important. Your reflection should be insightful and show that you truly
understand and thought about the topic in order to gain full credit. You must work alone on
this assignment.
Below you will find an example of a main idea chart that I have created. This is a guideline!!
You will not gain credit if you copy and paste what I have given you and try and pass it as
your own, this is plagiarism! Use it as a guide to help guide your thinking as you complete
the assignment.

Sources
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/fair-housing-act
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/voting-rights-act

Example Main Idea Chart

Civil Rights Legislation

Civil Rights Act of 1964

-It was signed into law on
July 2, 1964.
-President Lyndon B.
Johnson signed it into law.
-The act ended segregation
on the grounds of race,
religion, or national origin
in places of public
accommodation.
-Before the Civil Rights Act
of 1964 African Americans
were banned from certain
public places and were
segregated into black only
areas, this act changed
that.
- A Virginia segregationist
tried to kill the act by
adding an amendment to
end segregation against
women in the work place
hoping it would kill the
Civil Rights Act. It still
passed and now women
also had gain rights.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

-It was signed into law on
August 6, 1965.
-President Lyndon B.
Johnson signed the Voting
Rights Act into law.
-Before the Voting Rights
Act, African Americans
were kept away from
voting through the use of
force.
- A voting rights march in
Selma, Alabama showed
police using violence
against peaceful protesters
on national television.
-President Johnson
wanted to change this, so
he put together the Voting
Rights Act, which banned
literacy tests, investigated
poll taxes, and encouraged
voter registration.
-It was signed into law
because officials realized
that African Americans
needed to have their
voting rights protected.

Fair Housing Act of 1968

(Civil Rights Act of 1968)
- It was passed in April
1968.
-President Johnson signed
it into law.
-It prohibited
discrimination concerning
the sale, rental and
financing of housing,
based on race, religion,
national origin, and sex.
-It was passed after Martin
Luther King Jr. died.
-It changed housing
patterns.
-Before the Fair Housing
Act, African Americans and
other minorities could be
barred from certain
sections of a city.
-It expanded on the Civil
Rights Act of 1964.

Reflection
After reading through the legislations that were presented in the websites, I think
that they did a lot for civil rights. They are pieces of landmark legislation that changed the
way the country looked at African Americans. The Voting Rights Act finally ended Jim
Crow. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 changed so much. It ended segregation and ended
segregation for women in the work place. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibited the use
of race, religion, or national origin in financing housing. This meant that minorities would
be able to live where they wanted to without the fear of being turned away because of the
color of their skin. These are all very important to the advancement of civil rights.
I do not believe, however, that these pieces of legislation ended the struggle for civil
rights. There are still minority groups that are fighting for civil rights. For example, the
LGBTQ community has still been struggling to gain their civil rights. Women have also
been struggling to gain civil rights, they still dont earn as much as men. If I were to pass
civil rights legislation, I would make sure that women had the same rights as men and that
they earned the same amount as men. I dont think all the problems have been solved with
the passage of the civil rights legislation but I do think that eventually the country will give
its citizens complete civil rights.