American Outsiders: The Border Crisis and Civil Rights

Fifty years ago this month, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. The opening paragraph of the legislation reads like a to-do list for the creation of a modern democracy:

To enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States to provide injunction relief against discrimination in public accommodations, to authorize the Attorney General to institute suits to protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights, to prevent discrimination in federally assisted programs, to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, and for other purposes.

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