The medieval English charter known as Magna Carta was intended as a local political document, created to make peace between England's King John and his barons in the early thirteenth century. However, it carried within it powerful ideas about the limits of government and the importance of individual liberty, and its influence has spread across the centuries and around the globe.
My curiosity is always sparked by an item in the collections, a question from a researcher, or the knowledge researchers bring while doing their research.
Exploring employment-related primary sources from the decades leading up to 1964 can help students understand the significance of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
Unlike some of the other areas addressed in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, schools are something familiar to all students, so even the very young can deepen their understanding of the conditions that led to the legislation.
We’re publishing a series of blog posts that look at different facets of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and bring forward primary source items that help students engage with different issues addressed by the Act. Today we focus on Titles II - Injunctive Relief Against Discrimination in Places of Public Accommodation and III – Desegregation of Public Facilities.
When President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law on July 2, 1964, he said that “the purpose of the law is simple. It does not restrict the freedom of any American, so long as he respects the rights of others.”
