Biden: Civil Rights Act of 1964 created change, but ‘our work is not done’

After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president of the United States of America.

When Johnson first addressed the nation as president, he said that nothing “could more eloquently honor President Kennedy’s memory than the earliest passage of the civil rights bill.” 

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law on July 2, 1964. The legislation outlaws discrimination against individuals in the U.S. based on race, sex or national origin, and prohibits unequal voter registration requirements, racial segregation in schools and public accommodations, and employment discrimination.

In late July, President Joe Biden spoke at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum in Austin in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. He said he was a student at the University of Delaware when Kennedy was assassinated. He and three classmates heard the news over a transistor radio.

“It seemed unbelievable,” he said in Austin.

As a child, Biden said he admired President Johnson for his public service as a school teacher in Texas, a master of the U.S. Senate and a vice president and president.

“His philosophy was simple: In a great society — in a great society, no one — no one should be left behind.  He’d say — (applause) — it’s time for us to come to see that every American gets a decent break and a fair chance to make good,” Biden said.

Biden said that the 1964 legislation with the Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act made America a better nation.

“But we must be clear: Their work, our work is not done.  It’s not done.  We do not celebrate these laws as part of our past but as critical components of our future,” he said.

In June 1967, Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall as the first Black Supreme Court Justice in the United States.

In 2008, Barack Obama, the first Black president of the United States was elected. Now, Vice President Kamala Harris is running to become the first woman and second minority president of the U.S.

“We’re the United States of America, and there is nothing, nothing beyond our capacity — nothing — when we do it together.  So, let’s stay together,” Biden said in Austin.