Because it was basically necessary to break the back of Jim Crow. Jim Crow laws weren't just a set of laws put in place in southern states. They were an entire

Because it was basically necessary to break the back of Jim Crow. Jim Crow laws weren't just a set of laws put in place in southern states. They were an entire culture that said if you had the wrong color skin, you didn't deserve service. You didn't have to be treated as a fellow citizen. Your money wasn't as green as the next person's. And, indeed, via the Civil Rights Act we had to tie the right to operate as a legally-protected business entity to the obligation to serve all members of the community regardless of having qualities we recognized as unchangeable and ultimately harmless to society. We did it because it was the only way we could start to drive a wedge into American racism and separate the present from the past's grip on it. And it has been working, we have watched each generation get progressively less racist. But racism will not go without a fight, and we are watching an atrocious but effective stand in trying to leverage the law of the land to support the prejudices of old. We want the government to compel people to serve other Americans because they are other Americans. They deserve to be treated as fellow citizens.