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Congress marks 50th anniversary of Civil Rights Act of 1964

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Congressional leaders on Tuesday marked the 50th anniversary of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex or national origin.

Rep. Marcia Fudge, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, joined Congress’ top two Democrats and Republicans to commemorate the law and issue the Congressional Gold Medal in honor of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King.

The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian honor awarded by Congress.

President Barack Obama marked the anniversary in April, speaking at the Lyndon B. Johnson presidential library.

“As a master of politics and legislative process, he grasped—like few others—the power of government to bring about change,” Obama said then.

Here is a look at the legacy of Congress on civil rights:

2: Number of founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus still in Congress—Reps. Charlie Rangel and John Conyers. The Caucus was established by 13 lawmakers in 1971.

730 hours: The time Congress spent debating civil rights legislation in 1964, according to the Dirksen Center. The debate amounted to 83 working days and took up 3,000 pages in the Congressional Record.

290-130: The vote on the bill in the House on February 10, 1964.

14 hours, 13 minutes: The time that Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia filibustered the bill. But Byrd’s filibuster didn’t come close to Sen. Strom Thurmond’s 24-hour stand against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

71-29: The Senate vote to break Byrd’s filibuster. In what could be called an eye for an “aye,” terminally ill California Sen. Clair Engle, who was unable to speak, pointed to his eye to signal a “Yes” vote to end debate on the bill and move to a final vote.

73-27: The Senate vote that sent the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to President Lyndon Johnson’s desk for signature.

5: The number of African Americans serving in Congress at the time of the bill’s passage.

86: Gap between Black members of the Senate. Sen. Edward Brooke of Massachusetts became the third African American senator in 1967, 92 years after the second-ever Black senator, Blanche Kelso Bruce, left in 1881.

18: The number of Black representatives in Congress 10 years after the Civil Rights Act—13 more than in 1964.

2: A Democrat, New Jersey’s Cory Booker, and a Republican, South Carolina’s Tim Scott, are currently the only African American members of the Senate. The 113th Congress is the first time there has been more than one African American U.S. senators in the same period.

5: The disparity in percentage points between the proportion of African Americans in Congress and in the U.S. population (13 percent). Just 8 percent of all senators and representatives are African American.

6: The number of the states that voted against Johnson in the 1964 election that were from the South. Johnson reportedly told an aide after signing the act, “We have lost the South for a generation.” Kennedy had carried the popular vote in four of those states in 1960.

32-12 percent: The percentage of Blacks who voted for the Republican presidential candidate in 1960 compared to 1980. Just as many Southern Whites moved away from the Democratic Party, the shifting political landscape also pushed Blacks away from the Republican Party.

1/4: The percentage of the African American population living in poverty, compared to 11 percent of Whites living below the poverty line.

1: Remaining members of Congress who voted on the Civil Rights Act. Rep. John Dingell, currently the longest-serving member of Congress, voted yes.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-43) released the following statement marking the 50th anniversary of the signing of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964:

“Fifty years ago, President Lyndon Johnson signed the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin, including barring discrimination in all facilities open to the public, thereby ending the Jim Crow era in regions of the country. This 50th anniversary is a time to remember the debt all of us owe to the courageous leaders of the civil rights movement of the 1960s – many of whom were beaten and in some cases died in their fight for justice.  Their struggles and efforts culminated in the enactment of the Civil Rights Act.

“Despite the significance of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the progress our country has made toward equality, there is much more work that needs to be done. There are still barriers that exist in education and housing. Disparities in health care remain, a significant wealth gap still persists, and the struggle for voting rights continues.

“We must also work together to significantly expand economic and educational opportunity to all Americans – no matter what their race or ethnic origin. We have to ensure that ladders of opportunity are available to every American. By taking such steps as making college more affordable, investing in effective job training, and raising the minimum wage, we can do much more to expand opportunity so that everyone has a fair chance at the American Dream. These actions would be in the spirit of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and would continue to help our country to better live up to our creed that all individuals are created equal.”

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