The 1964 law was just one part of what historians have coined the “Long Civil Rights Movement,” tracing today’s sustained efforts back to the early 20th century, according to Marvin Walker, a lecturer in the Department of History at Rutgers–Camden. 

Walker, who specializes in African American history and philosophy, said many of those who were organizing were hyperlocal, rarely mentioned in historical accounts, and working deep within their communities since as early as the 1910s. Many were also female.

“If you go far enough into the African American movement, or any movement, you're going to find women organizing, leading, and coordinating,” Walker said, pointing to Ella Baker, who organized for the NAACP in the 1930s, founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, and spearheaded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee three years later. He also cited Pauli Murray, an advocate and legal scholar who, while a law student at Howard University, developed the legal theory that segregation could be challenged as a violation of the 14th amendment. 

The movement propelled Congress to pass two moderately successful Civil Rights Acts prior to the 1964 iteration. A 1957 law, the first such legislation since Reconstruction, created a Commission on Civil Rights to investigate violations. A second act, passed in 1960, attempted to strengthen voting rights. “The 1957 and 1960 laws didn't really have power to enforce anything,” Walker said. “But they were a precursor to the more impactful, wide-ranging legislation of 1964.”

The expansive civil rights measures in the 1964 act, Walker explained, laid the foundation for future protections to come. “They established the groundwork for rights that other acts would be able to benefit from, such as The Voter Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968,” he said. “All of these items are discussed in the 1964 legislation.”

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 also built on the momentum of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision one decade prior by not only banning segregation in schools, but appropriating federal funds to do so. “That funding kept the school doors open and ultimately ensured progress was made,” Walker said.

As a secondary and post-secondary history educator for more than 30 years, Walker has discussed The Civil Rights Movement with hundreds of high school and college students. He said it can take some time for students to make connections between history and current events.