Attorney General To Host 50th Anniversary Celebration Of The Civil Rights Act

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com)   —  Attorney General Kamala D. Harris will host a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act on Monday in Los Angeles.

The celebration, open to registered guests, will take place at the California African-American Museum (600 State Drive) at 11 a.m.

Harris will speak at the event.

Other speakers include: Charmaine Jefferson, Executive Director of the California African American Museum; Elise Buick, President and CEO of United Way of Greater Los Angeles; Nolan V. Rollins, President and CEO of the Los Angeles Urban League; Karen Korematsu, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute for Civil Rights and Education and Sylvia Mendez, a civil rights leader.

The landmark Civil Rights Act was signed into law on July 2, 1964 by then President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House.

The president and the nation were outraged by the murder about nine days earlier of three civil rights workers in Mississippi who were killed by KKK members after they tried to register black voters.

The murder of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman also assisted in the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.