Background: John F. Kennedy orginally proposed the Civil Rights Act, in response to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks and other African-American activists. Protests in the South, and the violent retaliation of police forces, forced Kennedy's hand and he proposed the act in 1963. It endurded long heated debates in the House and 14 hour filibusters in the Senate, but eventually passed both and was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy's successor.

The Act and its Achievements: The crowning piece of legislation in the Civil Rights Movement, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 addressed the desegregation of people based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. The Act, and more specifically Title VII, directly addresses fair and proper pay and compensation for a person's labor regardless of any factor (aside from gender at this time). It also extended the protection from discrimination to all public and private business, schools, and labor organizations. It also created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (or EEOC) to manage all claims of discrimination and unfair compensation. Title VII and the Civil Rights Act in general were both very successful, but also were full of loopholes that were exploited and ignored. This was the reason for future legislation regarding the wage gap. Finally, Title VII created a crucial piece of law, which states that even if a claim of discrimination is incorrectly brought upon a company by an employee, no retaliation may be brought upon that employee.