When we think about the Civil Rights Act, our minds are drawn to scenes of obstructionist Southern politicians and presidential arm-twisting. But we often forget the broader context of activism and protest in which the bill's long journey across Capitol Hill took place...These two stories—the political theater inside the Capitol, and the violent tumult of civil rights protests outside it—did not happen independently. Each drove the other. Few pieces of legislation in American history have been as intimately connected to its social context as the Civil Rights Act.

Pretty shocking. But more importantly, why is it that [the writer] seems to think that it is the government's role to protect the rights of business owners? The government shouldn't protect a customer's right to be treated fairly. Instead, that should left up to the market. But a business owner's right to treat people unfairly, why that should be protected by government statute!