Civil Rights Act, 1957

• Passed after being weakened from a previously attempted bill, as Congress rejected the first one. Due to southern Democrats opposing desegregation.
• President Eisenhower was intent on presenting a more equal national society, as all the publicity on discriminatory behaviours in the USA was damaging their international reputation.
• The act aimed to improve black American voting rights, setting up commissions that investigated any situation where a black American was restricted from voting, and prosecute states who did so.
• However bias juries rarely convicted, so there was still an almost non existent percentage of black American voters.