Civil Rights Act of 1968

Civil Rights Act of 1968

Long title	An Act to prescribe penalties for certain acts of violence or intimidation, and for other purposes.
Nicknames	Indian Civil Rights Act Indian Bill of Rights Fair Housing Act Housing Rights Act Open Housing Act Anti-Riot Act Federal Anti-Riot Act Rap Brown Act Rap Brown Law Civil Obedience Act Stokely Carmichael Act
Enacted by	the 90th United States Congress
Effective	April 11, 1968
Citations
Public law	90-284
Statutes at Large	82 Stat. 73
Codification
Titles amended	Title 18—Crimes and Criminal Procedure Title 25—Indians Title 42—Public Health and Welfare
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 2516 by Emanuel Celler (D–NY) on January 17, 1967 Committee consideration by Judiciary Passed the House on August 16, 1967 (327–93) Passed the Senate on March 11, 1968 (71–20) with amendment House agreed to Senate amendment on April 10, 1968 (250–172) Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on April 11, 1968
Major amendments
Section 1983 Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 Housing for Older Persons Act
United States Supreme Court cases
Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., 392 U.S. 409 (1968) Hunter v. Erickson, 393 U.S. 385 (1969) Kennerly v. District Court, 400 U.S. 423 (1971) Trafficante v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 409 U.S. 205 (1972) Curtis v. Loether, 415 U.S. 189 (1974)

The Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Pub. L. 90–284, 82 Stat. 73, enacted April 11, 1968) is a landmark law in the United States signed into law by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during the King assassination riots.

Titles II through VII comprise the Indian Civil Rights Act, which applies to the Native American tribes of the United States and makes many but not all of the guarantees of the U.S. Bill of Rights applicable within the tribes.^[1] (That Act appears today in Title 25, sections 1301 to 1303 of the United States Code).

Titles VIII and IX are commonly known as the Fair Housing Act, which was meant as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (This is different legislation than the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, which expanded housing funding programs.) While the Civil Rights Act of 1866 prohibited discrimination in housing, there were no federal enforcement provisions.^[2] The 1968 act expanded on previous acts and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, and since 1974, sex. Since 1988, the act protects people with disabilities and families with children. Pregnant women are also protected from illegal discrimination because they have been given familial status with their unborn child being the other family member. Victims of discrimination may use both the 1968 act and the 1866 act's section 1983^[3] to seek redress. The 1968 act provides for federal solutions while the 1866 act provides for private solutions (i.e., civil suits). The act also made it a federal crime to "by force or by threat of force, injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone... by reason of their race, color, religion, or national origin, handicap or familial status."^[4]

Title X, commonly known as the Anti-Riot Act, makes it a felony to "travel in interstate commerce...with the intent to incite, promote, encourage, participate in and carry on a riot." That provision has been criticized for "equating organized political protest with organized violence."^[5]