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Friday, June 05, 2015

New Symposium -- The Civil Rights Act of 1964 at 50: Past, Present, and Future

Linda McClain

A new symposium, “The Civil Rights Act of 1964 at 50:  Past, Present, and Future,” published in 95 Boston University Law Review 683-1232 (2015), is now available online. The Symposium observes the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. Growing out of a live conference held at Boston University School of Law on November 14 &15, 2014 (I was chair of the planning committee),  the just-published Symposium includes twenty-two articles by prominent scholars from law, economic history, political science, and sociology. Topics addressed include:  (1) historical perspectives on the 1964 Act and other civil rights laws; (2) classifications and categories in the 1964 Act and in subsequent civil rights laws; (3) reshaping public and private space -- public accommodations, neighborhoods, and housing; (4) reshaping public and private space -- education, the workplace, and the military; (5) proving discrimination; and (6) the limits and future of antidiscrimination law. My own contribution to the Symposium is the article, "The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 'Legislating Morality': On Conscience, Prejudice, and Whether 'Stateways' Can Change 'Folkways.'" The Symposium concludes with remarks on the role of transformational leadership in the civil rights movement by a colleague at BU's School of Theology, the alma mater of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The live conference included a keynote address by  Dr. William Julius Wilson, Harvard University, on "Public Policy Challenges Facing the Growing Shift in Emphasis from Race-Based to Class-Based Programs," and a closing keynote address by EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum on "Gender Equity: 50 Years After the Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964." The rest of the live conference proceedings are available here.

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