Civil Rights Act Of 1964 Quotes

The press secretary found the President very morose the day after his great triumph of passing the Civil Rights Bill of 1964. Moyers asked why he looked so sad.

Prior to Johnson’s civil rights efforts, the South virtually always voted for Democrats in all elections. The only political competition was for the Democratic Party Primaries. The term “Solid South” meant that it was solid for the Democratic Party. But after the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, the racist whites who used to be Democrats switched and joined the genuine traditional conservative and created a Republican Southern majority that was as solid for the GOP as the Democrats had ever enjoyed.

He was right. Even the vaunted Southern Filibuster was broken by the strategy and tactics Johnson and Senator Humbert Humphry, the Floor Leader for the 1964 Civil Rights Bill.

The following year most of the Southern Democrats joined the Republican Party in Protest over the Civil Rights Act. Reagan began to have national political ambitions and therefore flip flopped and stated that he would never have voted for the Civil Rights Act. This made him acceptable later as a conservative.

The Civil Rights Bill of 1964

The President wanted Anderson to relay his message to other Republicans which he did. At that time the Southern racists were almost all members of the Southern bloc of the Democratic Party. Most Republicans were then advocates of non discrimination. By 2010 virtually all the racists, nativists, neo Nazis, anti Catholics, and anti Semites had gravitated to the Republican party if they were still active in politics. Reasonable Republicans were embarrassed as reasonable Democrats had been before the shift which resulted from passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Johnson had proposed an extremely strong civil rights bill. Most Washington insiders assumed that he would gain favor amongst fair minded whites and Blacks for making the attempt, but then he would compromise with the Southerners, and water down the bill to something that had little or no teeth. His staff were trying to learn from Johnson, which aspects of the bill he was willing to compromise on assuming that the President could never get Congress to pass the bill in its original form. They were really surprised at the President’s answer and assumed that he could not do it. They were more surprised when he did drive the bill through Congress without any substantive compromises. It was the most powerful and effective Civil Rights legislation passed since Reconstruction a century earlier.

The event that triggered the call was President Lyndon Johnson introducing the Voting Right Act. Russell had been a mentor to the young Johnson, a fellow Southerner who had voted against and blocked all civil rights legislation when he was in the House and Senate. However when he became President, his representation changed and he reverted to his pre-political views. {637651}

Miller had offered the fast transportation to Washington for the express purpose of lobbying them to support ending the Southern Democrat’s filibuster of President Johnson’s Civil Right.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was bitterly opposed in the senate by Southerners who had filibustered continuously. After months of debate a critical cloture vote was taken against a Senate tradition which had never voted cloture on a civil rights filibuster. Every vote was critical. Senator Engle was dying from a brain tumor, and could not walk or speak. When the vote for cloture was taken, Engle was wheeled into the Senate chamber, and in what may have been the most eloquent, poignant, creative vote in Senate history, pointed to his eyes. The vote was recorded as:. The Aye's narrowly won. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law.

Weltner was the only Georgia politician who urged state compliance with the Federal Civil Rights Law of 1964. (See {637605}.) The others advocated disobedience, crime, and obstruction, particularly the Democratic Party Candidate for Governor Lester Maddox who also advocated racial violence and had a history of it himself. Weltner refused to support Maddox, and the Democratic Party then instituted a loyalty oath for all party candidates where they promised to support and campaign for all party candidates on the ticket. Welter refused to sign the oath and support Maddox, and therefore gave up the Democratic nomination which at the time virtually guaranteed a win. (Soon after, the segregationist politicians of the South accepted the Republican invitation to switch parties and since then the remaining racists and anti-civil rights politicians run as Republicans.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 This is a classic example of a twisted logic what was used for many years in the 20th century Red Scare in America. The International Communist Party was critical of the United States legal racial segregation as it was one of the great weaknesses of U. S. Capitalism for most people in the world. The American Communist party also echoed the party line. Almost all socialist organizations supported the Civil Rights Bill as well. Therefore argued Russell and most Southerners, it should be opposed as a Communist effort to weaken America. What they did not mention was that the majority of Democrats and Republicans supported the bill. That the vast majority of all the American churches and other religious organizations supported the bill, that Business groups all across the country wanted legal segregation ended. The only reason there was a long debate is that the Southerners used the filibuster where a small minority could block Senate legislation. But the American majority was so great for civil rights that the filibuster was defeated and the law passed which changed America forever.

Martin Luther King and his SCLC were demonstrating in St. Augustine, Florida against the segregation in that community. The local law enforcement officers had conspired with the local KKK groups to allow the group to beat the demonstrators and then arrest the demonstrators for disturbing the peace and demonstrating in the face of a local injunction against the demonstrations. Then the local authorities placed huge bail on the arrestees that they could not easily meet. While they were in custody, they were tortured in various ways. Judge Simpson, vacated the injunction and ordered that the demonstrators not be arrested, and if they were for any other crime reasonable bail be required. He also recommended prosecution of the wrong-doers. Remarkably, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover ordered his agents not to protect the civil rights demonstrators on the grounds that the FBI should not provide protective services. Hoover had a personal hatred of King who he claimed was a Communist, a sex pervert, and a law breaker. The President then threatened the Florida Governor to send Federal Marshalls into St. Augustine if the state could not maintain law and order. The Governor and the Georgia Senators pleaded to stop the demonstrations which were being intensified because King and the Civil Rights Demonstrators were gaining huge sympathy with the general public as a result of the journalists’ reports and Judge Simpson’s findings. The Civil Rights Bill of 1964 was being filibustered by the Southern senators at that time and this was a tactical victory, but some of the civil rights demonstrators were paying a fearful physical price. Judge Simpson died 4 year later, hated by the KKK and other segregationists in Florida. However in time, even the local Floridians came to appreciate the Judge’s role. The graphic shows the Federal Courthouse named in Judge Simpson’s honor.