Public Opinion, Demonstrations, and the Passage of Antidiscrimination Legislation

This paper considers the relationship of public opinion and demonstrations to the passage of federal civil rights legislation since World1 War II. Congress passed such legislation when substantial majorities of the population favored equal rights and the proportion favoring equal rights was clearly increasing. The evidence is consistent with the notionthat civil rights demonstrations played a significant role in the passage of the legislation. Both demonstrations andchanges in public opinion appear to have been necessary components of the drive to provoke congressional action.