President Eisenhower signed Civil Rights Act of 1960. The Civil Rights Act of 1960 (Pub.L. 86–449, 74 Stat. 89, enacted May 6, 1960) was a United States federal law that established federal inspection of local voter registration polls and introduced penalties for anyone who obstructed someone’s attempt to register to vote or someone’s attempt to actually vote.

The Civil Rights Act of 1960 was the first civil rights bill to be approved by Congress since Reconstruction. Although Eisenhower was not routinely linked to the civil rights issue, his contribution, was important as it pushed the whole civil rights issue into the White House. At the time, politicians from the South were angry over what they saw as federal interference in state affairs. The bill became an act in 1960 as both parties were fighting for the “Black Vote.” The Eisenhower civil rights acts added only an extra 3% Black voters to the electoral roll for the 1960 election.

While the act barely touched on anything new and Eisenhower, at the end of his presidency, was accused of passing the thorny problem of voters’ constitutional rights over to his successor. Though the act did little to impress civil rights leaders, they realizedthat it was the federal government’s recognition that a constitutional problem existed.