Key players in the conflict over civil rights 183One of the southern opponents of the legislation inserted the language referring to
sex, thinking that it would defeat the bill (assuming, perhaps, that there would be a
majority coalition of male chauvinists and segregationists), but it became law anyway.
The VR A of 1965 eliminated direct obstacles to minority voting in the South, such
as discriminatory literacy tests and other voter registration tests, and also provided
the means to enforce the law: federal marshals were charged with overseeing elections
in the South. After its passage, President Johnson hailed the VR A as a “triumph for
freedom as huge as any ever won on any battlefield.”^90 The VR A, which is often cited
as one of the most significant pieces of civil rights legislation in our nation’s history,^91
precipitated an explosion in black political participation in the South. The most
dramatic gains came in Mississippi, where black registration increased from 6.7
percent before the VR A to 59.8 percent in 1967. As one political scientist noted, “The
act simply overwhelmed the major bulwarks of the disenfranchising system. In the
seven states originally covered, black registration increased from 29.3 percent in March
1965, to 56.6 percent in 1971–1972; the gap between black and white registration rates
narrowed from 44.1 percentage points to 11.2.”^92
The last piece of landmark legislation, the Fair Housing Act of 1968, barred
discrimination in the rental or sale of a home based on race, sex, religion, and national
origin. Important amendments to the law enacted in 1988 added disability and familial
status (having children under age 18) to the list of protected categories, provided
new administrative enforcement mechanisms, and expanded Justice Department
jurisdiction to bring suit on behalf of victims in federal district courts.^93
There have been many other important amendments to civil rights laws since the
1960s. The 1975 amendments to the VR A extended coverage of many of the law’s
provisions to language minorities, guaranteeing that registration and voting materials
are made available to voters in their native language in certain districts with large
numbers of citizens who are not proficient in English. The 1982 VR A amendments
extended important provisions of the law for 25 years and made it easier to bring a
lawsuit under the act. The 1991 Civil Rights Act overruled or altered parts of 12 Supreme
Court decisions that had eroded the initial intent of the 1964 civil rights legislation. It
also expanded earlier legislation and increased the costs to employers for intentional,
illegal discrimination. In 2006, Congress voted to extend the VR A for another 25 years.Protections for Women Women have also received extensive protection through
legislation. As noted, the section of the Civil Rights Act that bars discrimination based
on gender, Title VII, was almost an accidental part of the bill (it was included by an
opponent to the legislation). Indeed, the first executive director of the EEOC would
not enforce the gender part of the law because it was a “fluke.” In 1966, the National
Organization for Women (NOW) was formed to push for enforcement of the law. Its
members convinced President Johnson to sign an executive order that eliminated sex
discrimination in federal agencies and among federal contractors, but the order was
difficult to enforce. Finally, in 1970, the EEOC started enforcing the law. Before long,
one-third of all civil rights cases involved sex discrimination, and those numbers have
remained high in recent years (see Figure 5.6).
Congress passed the next piece of important legislation for women in 1972: Title
IX of the Education Amendments, which prohibits sex discrimination in institutions
that receive federal funds. The law has had the greatest impact in women’s sports. In
the 1960s and 1970s, opportunities for women to play sports in college or high school
were extremely limited. Very few women’s scholarships were available at the college
level, and budgets for women’s sports were tiny compared with the budgets for men’s
sports. Although it took nearly 30 years to reach parity between men and women, most
universities are now in compliance with Title IX. Nonetheless, the law has its critics.Full_06_APT_64431_ch05_148-197.indd 183 16/11/18 1:30 PM