Museum artefacts are seen at The Jefferson Street Sound Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., September 16, 2024. In the late 1960s, clubs and other Jefferson Street businesses were demolished to make way for a highway, a fate Black neighborhoods across the country endured. Washington went on to work for himself, including as a music promoter and producer. In 2010, he bought a building and opened a museum packed with memorabilia of Jefferson Street's musical heyday. "I chose to put my money in here and have something to offer the next generations," he said. REUTERS/Kevin Wurm
ATLANTA, Georgia (Reuters) - It’s almost at the edge of living memory: President Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act in July 1964, urging Americans to “close the springs of racial poison.”
The legislation prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin at places serving the public - such as swimming pools and restaurants - as well as in education, hiring, promotion and firing and voting. And it gave the federal government powers to enforce those guarantees.
