Which description best characterizes the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

Which description best characterizes the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

• A. Prohibited literacy tests for voting.
• B. Created the Environmental Protection Agency.
• C. Banned segregation in public accommodations and prohibited employment discrimination.
• D. Authorized Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

Answer: (C)

Describes what the Civil Rights Act of 1964 accomplished: it banned segregation in public accommodations like hotels, restaurants, and theaters, and it barred discrimination in hiring, firing, and promotion based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It also created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce these protections. This marked a major federal push to ensure equal access in daily life and work, laying groundwork for further civil rights advances. The literacy-test prohibition is associated with later voting-rights legislation, the Environmental Protection Agency was created later and not part of civil rights law, and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution deals with foreign policy and war powers, not civil rights.

Describes what the Civil Rights Act of 1964 accomplished: it banned segregation in public accommodations like hotels, restaurants, and theaters, and it barred discrimination in hiring, firing, and promotion based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It also created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce these protections. This marked a major federal push to ensure equal access in daily life and work, laying groundwork for further civil rights advances. The literacy-test prohibition is associated with later voting-rights legislation, the Environmental Protection Agency was created later and not part of civil rights law, and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution deals with foreign policy and war powers, not civil rights.