--- title: Civil Rights Act of 1964: The Meaning Behind the Signing Date description: President Johnson signed the bill into law on July 2, 1964 canonical: https://time.com/3911037/civil-rights-act-1964/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-02T14:00:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:01.211Z article:section: History og:title: Civil Rights Act of 1964: The Meaning Behind the Signing Date og:description: President Johnson signed the bill into law on July 2, 1964 og:url: https://time.com/3911037/civil-rights-act-1964/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt15619037391bbb5d/6988533c55a85968a3a8c5ea/lbj1.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Johnson Signs Civil Rights Act og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Civil Rights Act of 1964: The Meaning Behind the Signing Date twitter:description: President Johnson signed the bill into law on July 2, 1964 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt15619037391bbb5d/6988533c55a85968a3a8c5ea/lbj1.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Meaning Behind the Civil Rights Act's Signing Date > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=94abee0d-c1dd-4f44-87bc-7515eecd9b89&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=94abee0d-c1dd-4f44-87bc-7515eecd9b89&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The March on Washington: The Movement Begins [Watch (HLS stream): The March on Washington: The Movement Begins](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/eYWENlb4.m3u8) (6:26)  _Published 2014-04-07. The March on Washington was a peaceful demonstration for racial equality. But it would not have happened without the beatings, arrests and violent struggle for civil rights that had already engulfed the Deep South._  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jul 2, 2015 2:00 PM UTC  President Lyndon B Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act in a ceremony at the White House, Washington DC, July 2, 1964 . President Lyndon B Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act in a ceremony at the White House, Washington DC, July 2, 1964 . PhotoQuest / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jul 2, 2015 2:00 PM UTC For President Johnson to sign the Civil Rights Act into law on July 2, 1964, was a no-brainer: the date was a Thursday, just as it is this year, and the symbolism of marking the hard-fought victory just before Independence Day would be a shame to waste. But, as TIME [noted](http://time.com/vault/issue/1964-06-26/page/19/) in its original 1964 coverage of the[ landmark legislation](http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=97), the Fourth of July wasn’t the only significant date in play. The date on which the Senate passed the bill was June 19, 1964—precisely one year after “President John Kennedy sent to Congress a civil rights bill, \[and\] urged its speedy passage ‘not merely for reasons of economic efficiency, world diplomacy or domestic tranquility, but above all because it is right.'” Though Kennedy had been assassinated the previous fall, the law he had advocated for had actually grown in strength and scope. After the House also passed the bill and it went on to the President, the season of its signing—and not just the calendar date—would also prove significant. The bill included many obviously important provisions affecting matters of great weight, like voting rights and equal employment. But, as TIME pointed out, it would take months to see the voting rules take effect, and the labor matters included a period during which businesses could adjust. On the other hand, one of the parts of the law—a part that may seem today to be far less important—was, as TIME put it, “effective immediately, and likely to cause the fastest fireworks.” The law entitled all persons to equal use of public accommodations, from hotels and movie theaters to soda fountains and public swimming pools. In the run up to the final vote, St. Augustine, Fla., proved why pools—long a contentious point, for the necessary closeness that comes with sharing the water with other people—would be a hot topic: --- > “” --- Due to the time of year, the new law’s effects would be immediately visible at swimming pools around the country. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, there's not anything more powerful than the marching feet of a determined people. We shall not be moved. As a kid, there was not much I could aspire to. We were diminished in the way we thought we could access power. And be part of the American fabric. [ NOISE ] And so, this gigantic march. We were saying to the world, this Land of great opportunity. This land of liberty, has an asterisk beside it. It is a land of freedom for everybody else, except black people. [ CROSSTALK ] Do you want to be free? Yes! Do you want to be free? Yes! Do you want to be free? Yes! [ CROSSTALK ] [ MUSIC ] Prior to Martin Luther King, Jr ., the United States was like a dysfunctional drug addict or alcoholic. You become addicted to racial segregation. [ MUSIC ] The end of the second World War, you were under the belief, if we were triumphant over Fascism, that the men and women returned from that conflict. Would be celebrated and honored When I was growing up in rural Alabama and would see those signs that was there. White waiting, colored waiting. White men, colored men. I would ask my mother, my father, my grandparents why they would say, that's the way it is, don't get in the way. I first knew of Dr. King the way everybody knew of Dr. King. All of a sudden one day in the midst of this turmoil in some far away place called Montgomery. Dr. King was pressed into service and took over the leadership of the Montgomery bus boycott, and we heard that almost immediately because not only did he, accept the leadership. But he pressed this idea that we should do it nonviolently. I was deeply inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Junior to find a way to get in the way. So, I used non violence by sitting on a lunch counter stool, by going on the freedom ride. To get in the way. The Freedom Ride was an attempt to break the segregation laws on interstate transportation on buses and on trains. There were six whites on the Freedom Ride and seven blacks we would sit together the black and white and Rock Hill South Carolina is where we encountered the first violence with John Lewis being. Pretty well beaten up. Federal government finally intervened and these early victories only encouraged us that we could do other things. They were very smart, media wise, because they dressed up. They put the ties on, they put jackets on. They were looking good. And they are going up against the authority. They're going against the man That was tremendously exciting to us as young, white southerners. As the non- violent uh, concept grew, parallel to that was also the growth of, eye for an eye violence. And there were many who, were quite bright, and quite gifted and honorable men and women. We saw violence as an answer. That just did not quite sit comfortably with the code that others of us had. Saying that although racism was a cruel experience, we could not fight it by becoming racists. [ NOISE ] In Birmingham, Alabama, the nation was cheated with television images. Of black and white boys and girls having high pressure fire hoses , slam them up against the walls as they were peacefully demonstrating to end segregation. Police dogs biting them. These pictures were circulated all around the world. [ NOISE ] But those demonstrations were like a. Spark that ignited a prairie fire of black protests across the country. And Kennedy, on the one hand he's trying to win Africans and people and say, we're a better system than Communism, and at the same time there was this harsh treatment of black people that just didn't square in the final equation. And the more we were fiesty in our demands of government, the more it revealed the weaknesses in our construct. What started out, as the Black Negro protest, had developed into a Negro revolution. There was a feeling that we would not be able to break the deep south. So, that march on Washington was to be the culmination of all of this intense organizing. It really has to be a moral crusade for the country. The struggle for freedom in the United States had to move to the center of power. To where the predsident and the congress were that no matter how many demonstrations took place In Montgomery and in Birmingham, and in places all around the South. That until you could change the central government, significant things wouldn't happen. The march on Washington was an accumulation of all this cuz here would have been the biggest display of America in its most democratic moment. Making a choice, and it was something that was emerging as, a great demonstration as to the will of the people. [ MUSIC ] [ UNKNOWN ] That that day, erupted, into violence. Then our cause would be seriously. [ UNKNOWN ] reversed. And hard to come by again. 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