During the peak of Freedom Summer, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, the most comprehensive civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. The act outlawed discrimination in education, employment, and housing, as well as segregation in all public spaces. The Freedom Summer volunteers and local activists would have one more crucial interaction with President Johnson at the end of the summer as they descended upon the Democratic National Convention in August.
Pictured: A black and white caption of President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Johnson is seated at a large desk, with numerous congressmen and other men surrounding him. Dr. Martin Luther King stands directly behind him.
Credit: Lyndon B. Johnson Library
