Not saying this so much to you Mani as in general. However, people must remember that the Civil Rights Act was not passed in 2010, it was passed in 1964. A much different time, a much different world. Across the entire country, racism was rampant to the point that people who were non-white had their civil rights violated beyond just not being able to sit at a lunch counter. They were given roadblock after roadblock to not even being able to vote, something that people often take for granted today.
Not only that, but the laws of the time made it highly difficult to even make a living for one's family.
Here in 2010, we may look at the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as unnecessary and unconstitutional, but at the time it was necessary.