The Great Society had three major goals, liberty and freedom for all, to end poverty, and to end racial injustice or discrimination. One of the first things on the list was to have the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed through legislation. This outlawed discrimination in publuic areas, housing, and jobs. This authorized the Justice Department, if needed, to bring states to legislation who discriminated against people of different sex, race, national origin, or religion. This garenteed that people would be treated equally in the work force. Women fought to pass the Equal Rights Amendment and people thought that non-discrimination in the work force was already a part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, so there was no need for that amendment. I think its great women and minorities fought for what they wanted and actually needed to survive. They needed a home to live in, a job to pay for that house and food, and they just needed to know they were excepted. The Act of 1964 increased the federal power and gave them the right to prosecute anyone who disobeyed these laws.
The next amendment they passed tried to abolish discrimination, was the Twenty-Fourth Amendment of 1964. This amendment set out to try to end the poll tax in all federal and some state elections. Poll taxes were taxes paid when people wanted to vote for President, Vice Pres. and other elections at the state level. These taxes were unfair to African Americans and kept them from voting and voicing their opinions. Not only was it African Americans, but other people were discriminated with the poll tax like people of different race , gender, or even some with dissabilities. I think this is a really great amendment and this is definately one that stopped some of the segregation between whites, blacks, and others. This amendment really did help the states and the U.S. as a whole. This pretty much gave every legal person the right to vote without having the unfair disadvantage.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ended the literacy tests some had to take, such as African Americans. Some were forced to take an unfair literacy test to be able to vote. Some tests were in different languages and some were overly hard. This act also gave the federal government the right to monitor the voting registration so that if someone was a different race, their registration wouldn't be thrown away just because they were black. Someone couldn't deny you if you couldnt read or write, your of a different race or ethnicticity, or even if you were a women like it was a long time ago. This was a great act, because people shouldnt be seperated because they want to voice their opinion and some wont let them because of literay terms.
"This bill that we will sign today is not a revolutionary bill. It does not affect the lives of millions. It will not reshape the structure of our daily lives, or really add importantly to either our wealth or our power. Yet it is still one of the most important acts of this Congress and of this administration [as it] corrects a cruel and enduring wrong in the conduct of the American nation." ; Lyndon Johnson stated when he signed the Immigration Act of 1965 bill. He was right, it wouldnt effect millions or even many, but it would impact the ones who needed this bill most. The immagration bill was seen as an additive to the civil rights movement and it really was. This pretty much gave more countries the right to have more and more immigrants come to the United States. Because before we had a specific number of quotas that were issued to countries, but now theyre are no limits.
http://www.cis.org/articles/1995/back395.html
http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/E-N/Immigration-The-immigration-act-of-1965.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Society
https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3310309382?profile=original
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