1964- Civil Rights Act. Outlawed racial discrimination in employment, restaurants, hotels and amusement areas and many bodies receiving Government money including schools. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was set up to investigate complaints.

1965 - Voting Rights Act- allowed people register and stopped racial discrimination with respect to the right to vote.

1967 – Supreme Court ruled that state laws forbidding inter- racial marriages were unconstitutional.

1968 – Civil Rights Act (Fair Housing Act) made racial discrimination in housing illegal.

In 1968 Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Although James Earl Ray was convicted, his murder was almost certainly a conspiracy. He had been campaigning on behalf of striking refuse workers. He had also criticised the Vietnam War. Riots followed his murder. Many black Americans became more militant after this.