President Kennedy offers sweeping civil rights legislation 50 years ago today (1963)

(Wednesday, June 19, 1963, during the African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–68)) — U.S. President John F. Kennedy sent Congress today a five-point civil rights program (which would eventually become the Civil Rights Act of 1964), providing the most “responsible, reasonable and urgently needed solutions” to discrimination in public accommodations, education and employment.