Fifty Years after Reform: The Successes, Failures, and Lessons from the Immigration Act of 1965 — Welcoming Remarks and Introductory Address

On October 3rd, 1965, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Immigration Act of 1965 into law. Widely viewed as a component of the Civil Rights Movement, the 1965 Act liberalized immigration and replaced the last eugenics-inspired portions of the Immigration Act of 1924. For the first time in generations, immigrants from Western Europe were not given legal preference over those from Asia and the rest of the developing world.