The 1964 Civil Rights Act and Title VI’s Jewish Dilemma

U.S. Congress

1964

An Act

To enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States to provide injunctive relief against discrimination in public accommodations, to authorize the Attorney General to institute suits to protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights, to prevent discrimination in federally assisted programs, to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the “Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
…

TITLE VI—NONDISCRIMINATION IN FEDERALLY ASSISTED PROGRAMS
SEC. 601. No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

Credits

Civil Rights Act of 1964, §601, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d et seq (1964).

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In 1964, Congress passed civil rights laws that rivaled—and mirrored—the sweeping amendments ratified after the Civil War. Although revolutionary, the legislation reflected many decades of legal advocacy and grassroots mobilization. It also bore the imprint of intense debates about how to balance individual equal protection with categorical protections based on group differences. Title VI of the law bound institutions, such as schools and universities, that received federal funding not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, and national origin. Notably, unlike other statutes in the law, Title VI did not include protections against religious discrimination, an omission that left Jews in an ambiguous position under the law.

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U.S. Congress

est. 1789

Established in 1789 by the U.S. Constitution, the Congress of the United States forms the legislative part of the tripartite federal government. It is bicameral, with the lower House of Representatives and the upper Senate. The former consists of 435 representatives elected for two-year terms by population-equal districts across each state (as well as six non-voting members), while the latter consists of one hundred members, two from each state, serving staggered six-year terms.