Title VII Civil Rights Act

Essay by salthurmondCollege, UndergraduateA-, December 2006

download word file, 5 pages 3.0

The Civil Rights Acts of 1964 is considered landmark legislation in the United States which basically outlawed discrimination based on race, color, sex or national origin. This particular legislation is said to have been originally conceived to protect the rights of the black men who were, at that time, victims of discrimination. The bill was eventually amended prior to passage to protect the civil rights of everyone, and explicitly included women for the first time. For this particular paper, focus will be made on Title VII of the said Act and will touch on its history and evolution, impact on the workplace as well as identification of who is covered and who is not under Title VII.

With regard to the history of the act, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was promised by President John F. Kennedy in his civil rights speech of June 11, 1963, in which he asked for legislation that would provide the "kind of equality of treatment which we would want for ourselves".

He then sent the bill to Congress on June 19, when it was introduced in Congress by then Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (Wikipedia, 2006).

In part, Title VII states: a) It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer - (1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; or (2) to limit, segregate, or classify his employees or applicants for employment in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; (b)...