Civil Rights Act of 1960

Civil Rights Act of 1960

Long title	An Act to enforce constitutional rights, and for other purposes.
Acronyms (colloquial)	CRA
Enacted by	the 86th United States Congress
Effective	May 6, 1960
Citations
Public law	86-449
Statutes at Large	74 Stat. 86
Codification
Acts amended	Civil Rights Act of 1957
Titles amended	Title 18—Crimes and Criminal Procedure
U.S.C. sections amended	18 U.S.C. ch. 39 § 837 18 U.S.C. ch. 49 § 1074 18 U.S.C. ch. 73 § 1509
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 8601 by Emanuel Celler (D–NY) on March 10, 1960 Committee consideration by House Judiciary Passed the House on March 24, 1960 (311–109) Passed the Senate on April 8, 1960 (71–18) with amendment House agreed to Senate amendment on April 21, 1960 (288–95) Signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on May 6, 1960
Major amendments
Civil Rights Act of 1964 Civil Rights Act of 1991

The Civil Rights Act of 1960 (Pub. L. 86–449, 74 Stat. 89, enacted May 6, 1960) is a United States federal law that established federal inspection of local voter registration polls and introduced penalties for anyone who obstructed someone's attempt to register to vote. It dealt primarily with discriminatory laws and practices in the segregated South, by which African-Americans and Tejanos had been effectively disenfranchised since the late 19th and start of the 20th century. This was the fifth Civil Rights Act to be enacted in United States history. Over an 85-year period, it was preceded only by the Civil Rights Act of 1957, whose shortcomings largely influenced its creation. This law served to more effectively enforce what was set forth in the 1957 act through eliminating certain loopholes in it, and to establish additional provisions. Aside from addressing voting rights, the Civil Rights Act of 1960 also imposed criminal penalties for obstruction of court orders to limit resistance to the Supreme Court's school desegregation decisions,^[1] arranged for free education for military members' children, and banned the act of fleeing to avoid prosecution for property damage. The Civil Rights Act of 1960 was signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.