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

U.S. Congress

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.

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).

Discussion Questions

  1. Why did the law identify protected categories—grounds upon which one may seek redress through it—instead of simply saying that all discrimination is outlawed?

  2. What do “race, color, and national origin” mean in the context of a law passed in 1964?

  3. Why would Jews in the 1960s want to be classified under the law’s protected categories? What misgivings might they have had, especially given the history of Nazism and American racism?

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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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