Was the Civil Rights Amendment Good or Bad? What was the purpose?

Im having a debate in US history and im not sure why the civil rights amendment would be opposed.

It would be opposed not necessarily for the effects it wants to lead to--inclusion for all people regardless of status and extension of legal rights to them--but for its effect on the relation between state governments and the federal one. The Civil Rights Amendments essentially extended the same protections our federal government provides to people to the state governments, which subverted some of their Constitutions and laws. If you are an advocate of state sovereignty and someone who opposes a large federal government, you would certainly oppose anything that imposed a new requirement on states, when the states are supposed to be able to set their own policies and pass their own laws that are immune to federal interference.

The purpose of the Civil Rights Amendment was to establish statutes enacted to prevent discrimination based on a person's race, sex, religion, age, previous condition of servitude, physical limitation, national origin, and in some instances sexual preference.

This mainly consisted of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery throughout the United States. In response to the 13th Amendment, various states enacted "black codes" which were intended to limit the civil rights of the newly free slaves. In 1868 the 14th Amendment was passed to counter the "black codes" and ensure that no state "shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States... or deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The most prominent civil rights legislation since reconstruction is the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It regulated interstate commerce and prohibited discrimination based on "race, color, religion, or national origin" in public establishments that had a connection to interstate commerce or that is supported by the state. It also aided in desegregation of public establishments like restaurants, schools, places of entertainment, etc. In addition, various titles of this civil rights act prohibit discrimination in federally funded programs as well as employment discrimintation.

I guess to sum up the answer to your question, it would all be based upon your race. If you are a minority, disabled, and/or a homosexual, then the civil rights amendment is considered to have been effective and a good idea. It brings about equality in education, the right to vote, employment, and various other areas of interest.

Well looking from a white person's perspective in that day and age, it would be bad because you are losing cheap labor. They would have to hire these workers for a better wage and it was the worker's choice to work or not. The availability would be less if the blacks got their rights. Additionally, they didn't want the blacks to vote beacuse if they could vote then they would have a say in the system, which would be something whites would oppose since black views and white views may differ. Also there was a struggle for rights for women as well as for blacks at about the same time. So women saw giving rights to the black as a threat and taking away attention from their cause so they would oppose it too.