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summer of 1963.

The changes strengthened President Kennedy's original proposal in response to the tumultuous summer of 1963,which saw several incidents of racially motivated violence across the South.  The House Judiciary Committee approved the legislation on October 26, 1963, and formally reported it to the full House on November 20, 1963, just two days before President Kennedy was assassinated.  On November 27, 1963, President Lyndon Johnson asserted his commitment to President Kennedy's legislative agenda, particularly civil rights legislation.  The House of Representatives passed a final version of the Civil Rights Act on February 10, 1964.

The bill came before the Senate in February 1964. 

Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield filed a procedural motion to prevent the Civil Rights Act of 1964

The Senate began debate on the proposal on March 30, 1964.

Senator Edward Kennedy, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, dedicated his first speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate to the consideration of the Civil Rights Act. 

passed on June 19, 1964, by a vote of 73 to 27. 

The Civil Rights Act paved the way for future anti-discrimination legislation, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

When the bill finally passed the Senate, King hailed it as one that would ‘‘bring practical relief to the Negro in the South, and will give the Negro in the North a psychological boost that he sorely needs’’ (King, 19 June 1964).

On 2 July 1964, Johnson signed the new Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law with King and other civil rights leaders present.

created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to address race and sex discrimination in employment and a Community Relations Service to help local communities solve racial disputes; authorized federal intervention to ensure the desegregation of schools, parks, swimming pools, and other public facilities; and restricted the use of literacy tests as a requirement for voter registration.

doctors pronounced him dead at 7:05 P.M.