The Civil Rights Act put an end to that and let America turn the page on state-sanctioned racial discrimination. But it wasn't an easy victory. To quote an earlier piece that we wrote on this issue:
Congress, which was controlled by the Democrats, could no longer sit back and let the Dixiecrats run the show. Not this time. There was too much pressure from the American people. It was finally time to produce some results and pass the President's bill. Even after the assassination of JFK on Nov. 22, 1963, Democratic Vice President, Lyndon B. Johnson, was sworn in as President and continued to keep the pressure on Congress to pass the bill. Finally, after much heated debate and a 57-day filibuster by the Dixiecrats in the Senate, on July 2, 1964, the bill was signed into law. It passed the House by a vote of 290 to 130 (of the 290 Yea votes - 152 were Democrats, 138 were Republicans). It passed in the Senate by a vote of 73 to 27 (of the 73 Yea votes - 46 were Democrats, 27 were Republicans). In the House there were 94 Dixiecrats - 87 of them voted against the Civil Rights Act. In the Senate there were 21 Dixiecrats - 20 of them voted against it.