President Kennedy felt that the country could no longer function with legal prejudice at its core.
He appeared on national television to beg all Americans to eliminate segregation from the country. He stated that he would ask Congress to pass laws that would give all Americans the right to be served in public places such as hotels, restaurants, theaters, and stores. “No American in 1963 should have to endure denial of this right,” he said.
As he promised, on June 19, 1963, President Kennedy delivered a new civil rights bill to Congress.
It outlawed segregation in all interstate public accommodations and gave the U.S. attorney general power to start lawsuits for school integration. It also gave the attorney general the important power to cut off money to any federal programs in which discrimination occurred.
It also contained a provision that helped ensure the right of black people to vote by declaring that a person who had a sixth grade education would be presumed to be literate.
