Civil Rights Act of 1957
The Civil Rights Act of 1957, , a federal voting rights bill, was the first federal civil rights legislation passed by the United States Congress since the Civil Rights Act of 1875. Its purpose was to show the federal government's support for racial equality after the US Supreme Court's 1954 decision in "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka".
Abraham Akaka
The U.S. Civil Rights Commission was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957, and each state has an unpaid appointed advisory board on the commission, with term limits on their service. Hawaii had been represented on the advisory board prior to its admission to statehood on August 21, 1959. When new board members were appointed in 1962, Akaka was appointed chairman, at which point he became active on a national level, joining the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the 1963 march on Washington, D.C. In 1965, Akaka provided flower leis worn by King and his advisors on the third Selma Civil Rights March.