preview

The Civil Rights Act Of 1964

Better Essays

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended state and local laws that involved segregation, prohibiting legal discrimination based on ethnicity, color, race, sex, and religion. Now, after much time has passed, people can pose the question: how prominent is segregation in today’s society? In particular, Chicago, the third largest city in the United States, poses interesting dynamics concerning this question. For one, the city consistently has high crime and murder rates in specific areas, while other parts of the city show low rates in comparison. One researcher Richard Reeves states, "Even in a country marked by high levels of segregation, Chicago stands out" (qtd. in Luhby). Therefore, many would agree that laws prohibiting segregation didn’t necessarily get rid of it. These laws, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, did not bring together different groups of people, and most certainly haven’t prevented segregation regarding other facets of life, areas not so easily defined by the law. Segregation and the problems it creates, further leads to unfair disadvantages placed on members of certain communities. Here, through the examination of numerous texts and social dynamics, various aspects of segregation in Chicago will be explored to argue how segregation is still a dominant and troubling part of Chicago, and how it has drastic consequences. In Chicago, the quantitative evidence of crime rates and other statistics are important in displaying the extent of racial segregation in

Get Access