Civil Rights and the Presidency: Race and Gender in American Politics, 1960-1972

Now abridged for courses, Hugh D. Graham's groundbreaking history of national policy during the battle for civil rights re-creates the intense debates in Congress and the White House that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 banning discrimination against minorities and women. Unique in its discussion of both race and gender as the driving forces in the development of civil rights policy, the text follows the implementation of these policies through a thickening maze of federal agencies and court decisions, showing how the classic liberal agenda of non-discrimination evolved into the controversial program of affirmative action.