How did the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 help the movement for racial equality?

I would argue that the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960
were mostly symbolic.  They helped the movement for racial equality by encouraging civil
rights advocates and by making the issue more visible to whites across the
country.

Both of these acts were meant to help ensure that
blacks would have the right to vote in the South.  They legally had that right, but it
was being abridged in many ways.  Both bills tried to end this.  However, neither was
particularly effective, which is why Congress had to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965
to finally protect African Americans' right to
vote.

Although these two laws did not have a major effect
on voting rights, they did encourage activists.  For the first time, the Congress was
saying that blacks deserved better than they were getting.  Hearing this inspired more
people to push for their rights.  The laws also made whites across the country more
aware of the situation of blacks in the South.  This helped civil rights activists
because one of their major goals was to raise awareness of their plight so that they
could get more support from whites around the country.