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The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and subsequent legislation were major triumphs for the Civil Rights Movement. However, they were passed only after a long battle. There are three general reasons that this legislation was finally passed. First, public opinion was changing in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Between 1959 and 1965, the proportion of southern whites who approved of letting their children attend a school with black students more than doubled while the proportion of northern whites stayed generally over 60%. By 1980, both southern and northern whites had an approximately 70% approval. This change in attitude also applied to equal access to hotels and buses in other polls. Although support in principle