Of its eleven titles, the five below exemplified the act's scope and significance.

Title I banned unequal voter registration requirements. Title II barred racial discrimination by hotels, restaurants, and public accommodations whose “operations affected Interstate Commerce.” The attorney general could sue to stop “a pattern or practice” of discriminating. Title IV authorized enforcement of the Supreme Court decision overruling school segregation. Title VI stipulated that federally funded agencies or programs must not discriminate and, if they did so, could forfeit funds. Title VII provided equal employment opportunity; it forbad employers and unions to exclude persons on the basis “of their race, religion, sex, or national origin.” It also instituted an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate and redress employees’ grievances; it exempted schools and local governments but later regulated them. Legal desegregation of suffrage, public accommodations, education, and employment, fueled by civil rights activism, forecast historic progress in southern and national race and social relations.