The Civil Rights Act of 1964 at Fifty: Past, Present, and Future

This conference marks the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by bringing together a distinguished, interdisciplinary group of scholars to address fundamental questions about the past, present and future of this historic act. The conference will invite historical consideration of the relationship among social movements, activism and law reform. Because the 1964 Act served as a template for subsequent civil rights laws, the conference will examine the expansion and evolution of protected classifications over time, through amendments to the Act and through additional civil rights legislation. Speakers will address the problems that public agencies and private plaintiffs have confronted in proving discrimination under the 1964 Act and subsequent civil rights laws. The conference will also ask what the remaining challenges are for addressing contemporary forms of inequality. The papers and proceedings will be published in Boston University Law Review. For more information on the conference, please contact Professor Linda McClain at lmcclain@bu.edu. Additional details, including registration information, will be posted as soon as they are available.