On September 9, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The Act was only the first in a series of laws designed to protect Americans’ civil rights, and indeed was by itself not very effective in increasing equality and providing African Americans with voting rights. However, it represented a significant step toward equality, including the Civil Rights Act of 1960, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.This granted voting privileges to all blacks. The bill never became a law, but it intended to protect the right of African Americans to vote. The goal of the Act was to ensure that all people in America could gain their right to vote.