An Idea Whose Time Has Come: The Civil Rights Act of 1964

By Frank H. Mackaman

The landmark civil rights legislation of the mid-1960s has attracted considerable scholarly attention, deservedly so. Much of the analysis of this legislation has centered on the social and cultural conditions that gave birth to such laws as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. "It can be said of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that, short of a declaration of war, no other act of Congress had a more violent background," according to political scientist Robert Loevy, "a background of confrontation, official violence, injury, and murder that has few parallels in American history."As valuable as the emphasis on the civil rights movement has been, an equally vital chapter has been neglected-the story of the legislative process itself. AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME: THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964 provides a fuller accounting of law-making based on the unique archival resources housed at The Dirksen Congressional Center, including the collection of then-Senate Minority Leader Everett McKinley Dirksen (R-IL), widely credited with securing the passage of the bill. AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME demonstrates that Congress is capable of converting big ideas into powerful law, that citizen engagement is essential to that process, and that the public policies produced fifty years ago continue to influence our lives.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 150082190X
• ISBN13: 9781500821906
• Release Date: September 2014
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 138 Pages
• Weight: 0.93 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.0" x 0.3" x 8.5"