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Civil Rights

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A half-century after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the landmark Civil Rights Act, CBS News' Bob Schieffer hosted a symposium on Americans' historic fight against segregation, and the continuing struggle for equal rights for all.

A half-century after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the landmark Civil Rights Act, CBS News' chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer hosted a symposium on Americans' historic fight against segregation, and the continuing struggle for equal rights for all. Among Schieffer's guests discussing racism in the United States and the future of equality are relatives of three civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi in 1964; advocates Harry Belafonte, Rep. John Lewis and Evan Wolfson; historian Taylor Branch; CBS Sports broadcaster James Brown; actors Whoopi Goldberg and Rosie Perez; and Brooklyn Nets player Jason Collins.

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Watch the complete June 25, 1964 broadcast of a special CBS News report, anchored by Walter Cronkite, about the search for three civil rights workers who went missing while trying to register black voters in Mississippi during the "Freedom Summer" project

Watch the complete June 25, 1964 broadcast of a special CBS News report, anchored by Walter Cronkite, about the desperate search for three civil rights workers who went missing while trying to register black voters in Mississippi during the "Freedom Summer" project. The hour-long report features interviews with local officials and businessmen defending segregation in the state; civil rights workers on the violence unleashed upon activists; police on responding to protests; and local citizens about life under Jim Crow.

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Watch excerpts from President Lyndon B. Johnson's televised speech on July 2, 1964, as he signed the landmark Civil Rights Act to address racial discrimination and inequality

Watch excerpts from President Lyndon B. Johnson's televised speech on July 2, 1964, as he signed the landmark Civil Rights Act to address racial discrimination and inequality. "We have come now to a time of testing - we must not fail," he told an audience of lawmakers and civil rights advocates, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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On June 21, 1964, civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner were ambushed and shot dead by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi

On June 21, 1964, civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner were ambushed and shot dead by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. Their deaths were dramatized in the 1988 film "Mississippi Burning." David Goodman, the brother of Andrew Goodman, reflects on the case that captured the nation's attention.

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In an interview conducted during the 1964 Freedom Summer Project, Miss. Gov. Paul Johnson decried participants in the voter registration effort, while law enforcement steeled themselves for the influx of volunteers seeking to register blacks to vote.

In an interview conducted during the 1964 Freedom Summer Project, Miss. Gov. Paul Johnson decried participants in the voter registration effort as "professional agitators" and "weirdos" who were misleading people of "good intentions," while law enforcement steeled themselves for the influx of volunteers seeking to register blacks to vote.

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