An Idea Whose Time Has Come: Two Presidents, Two Parties, and the Battle for the Civil Rights Act of 1964

by Todd S. Purdum

  Smith’s amendment “could doom the bill”: Caplan, Farther Along, p. 218; Watson, Lion in the Lobby, p. 613.

  “We are entitled to this little crumb of equality: Whalen and Whalen, Longest Debate, p. 117.

  “We made it!”: Dierenfield, Keeper of the Rules, p. 195.

  “There is no need for your amendment”: Whalen and Whalen, Longest Debate, p. 118.

  The ninth and final day: CQ Weekly, week ending Feb. 14, 1964, p. 296.

  Rauh ducked out to a pay phone: Rauh OH, LBJL.

  “No lobbyist could ever outdo Lyndon”: Wilkins, Standing Fast, p. 301.

  The last substantive amendment: Whalen and Whalen, Longest Debate, p. 120.

  One by one, the members answered: CQ Weekly, week ending Feb. 14, 1964, p. 293.

  “It was sort of a source of great pride”: Dingell interview.

  “well over a thousand persons from every state”: CQ Weekly, week ending Feb. 21, 1964, p. 366.

  diligent gallery-watching efforts paid off: Whalen and Whalen, Longest Debate, p. 121; CQ Weekly, week ending Feb. 14, 1964, p. 293.

  lobbying by the church groups … bore fruit, too: Findlay, Church People in the Struggle, p. 54.

  In gratitude to the members and aides: O’Grady interview.

  At the White House, President Johnson: TPR, Lyndon B. Johnson, vol. 4, pp. 441–43.

  “By golly, we got this thing back of us”: Ibid., p. 437.

  When Halleck went home: Speech and clipping files, CAHP.

  “We were all happy”: Watson, Lion in the Lobby, p. 614.

  Less than an hour after the final vote: TPR, Lyndon B. Johnson, vol. 4, pp. 451–52.

  Johnson and Kennedy had barely seen each other: Guthman, We Band of Brothers, p. 251.

  “Don’t ever do a favor for me again!”: Ibid., p. 254; Shesol, Mutual Contempt, pp. 184–87; Goodwin, Remembering America, pp. 247–48; Caro, Passage of Power, pp. 583–84; TPR, Lyndon B. Johnson, vol. 4, pp. 468–76; Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy in His Own Words, pp. 406–7.

  “What do you think of President Johnson?”: http://www.pophistorydig.com/?tag=beatles-in-1964.

  8: You Listen to Dirksen!

  “into the bright sunshine of human rights!”: Carl Solberg, Hubert Humphrey: A Biography (Minneapolis: Borealis Books, 2003), p. 18. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/huberthumphey1948dnc.html.

  “Call me whenever there’s trouble”: Hubert H. Humphrey, The Education of a Public Man: My Life in Politics (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991), p. 204. It is not clear on precisely which date this conversation took place. Some accounts place it on March 8, 1964, after Humphrey’s appearance on Meet the Press. But Johnson’s telephone call to him on that occasion was not tape-recorded, and Humphrey himself later recalled being approached by Johnson on this topic just after being named floor manager. So I have concluded that the weight of available evidence suggests the talk took place on or about February 18. The substance of Johnson’s repeated message to Humphrey about Dirksen in this period is not in any doubt.

  Katzenbach … retained a vivid impression: Katzenbach, Some of It Was Fun, p. 142.

  Carl Hayden … had never voted for cloture: Whalen and Whalen, Longest Debate, p. 126.

  “Talking voting details”: Katzenbach, Some of It Was Fun, pp. 139–40.

  “The bill can’t pass unless you get Ev Dirksen”: Humphrey OH, LBJL.

  Dirksen was the single most flamboyant senator: Louella Dirksen, The Honorable Mr. Marigold: My Life with Everett Dirksen (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1972), p. 222; Nick Kotz, Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Laws That Changed America (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005), p. 155.

  “Ev’s up!”: New York Times, obituary of Dirksen, Sept. 9, 1969.

  “the inimitable and euphonious sockdolager”: Neil MacNeil and Richard A. Baker, The American Senate: An Insider’s History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), p. 293.

  “speak to the folks in the back rows”: Neil MacNeil, Dirksen: Portrait of a Public Man (New York: World, 1970), p. 33.

  “the little violations of liberty”: Civil Rights files, Box 1963–65, EMDP.

  “If it’s made of dough”: Byron C. Hulsey, Everett Dirksen and His Presidents (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000), p. 14.

  “this is terrible country”: Mackaman, Long Hard Furrow, p. 51.

  “foot or finger in every possible camp”: Hulsey, Everett Dirksen and His Presidents, p. 61.

  Among Dirksen’s policy differences with Eisenhower: Ibid., p. 89.

  “the heavens will not be rent asunder”: Ibid., p. 100.

  “thus retained more flexibility”: Ibid., p. 102.

  Of the Senate’s thirty-three Republicans: Whalen and Whalen, Longest Debate, p. 160.

  “we would organize”: Mann, Walls of Jericho, p. 394; MacNeil, Dirksen, p. 204.

  “I had to make up my mind”: Humphrey recollection, quoted in Robert D. Loevy, ed., The Civil Rights Act of 1964: The Passage of the Law That Ended Racial Segregation (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997), pp. 81, 86.

  “The time is now”: Whalen and Whalen, Longest Debate, p. 132.

  “We are not operating a pit”: Mann, Walls of Jericho, p. 394.

  Mansfield would immediately share them with Dirksen: Author interview with Charles Ferris, May 15, 2013.

  “those qualities had to be preserved”: Author interview with John Stewart, April 2012.

  “Oh, that god-damned, no-good outfit”: TPR, Lyndon B. Johnson, vol. 4, p. 621.

  “She’s just a troublemaker”: Ibid., p. 659.

  Humphrey quickly welcomed Kuchel: Humphrey manuscript, cited in Loevy, ed., Civil Rights Act of 1964, p. 84.

  “I’m taking the full responsibility”: TPR, Lyndon B. Johnson, vol. 4, pp. 712–13.

  Lee Metcalf … overruled Russell: John Stewart manuscript, cited in Loevy, ed., Civil Rights Act of 1964, p. 215.

  “We would make a great mistake”: Whalen and Whalen, Longest Debate, p. 135.

  “extraordinary, but legal, means”: Stewart manuscript, cited in Loevy, ed., Civil Rights Act of 1964, p. 215.

  the immediate effect of his gesture was to alienate: Stephen Horn log, p. 27, EMDP.

  “He would use time”: Author interview with Walter F. Mondale, June 2012.

  “more solutions than we have problems”: Gilbert C. Fite, Richard B. Russell, Jr.: Senator from Georgia (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991), p. 420.

  “Stay out of bed as long as you can”: Humphrey, Education of a Public Man, pp. 8–9.

  “I sometimes wonder”: Ibid., p. 17.

  “just fade away and go broke”: Ibid., p. 23.

  “you felt it less”: Ibid., p. 28.

  “Why haven’t I a chance?”: Ibid., p. 32.

  “a most difficult and impecunious time”: Ibid., p. 39.

  “Why, it’s uneconomic”: Ibid., p. 42.

  (he thought it looked pompous): Stewart interview.

  won by more than thirty thousand votes: Humphrey, Education of a Public Man, p. 50.

  “newspapers in Minnesota”: Ibid., p. 73.

  “a glib, jaunty spellbinder”: Solberg, Hubert Humphrey, p. 133.

  “the Senate’s gabbiest freshman”: Mann, Walls of Jericho, p. 99.

  Humphrey … could always tell when Young was suffering an attack: Mondale interview.

  “He always believed … that you could solve anything”: Mann, Walls of Jericho, p. 94.

  “he is one of us!”: Humphrey, Education of a Public Man, p. 171.

  “He doesn’t want us to get bear”: Horn log, pp. 24–26, EMDP.

  only too happy to compromise in the end: Mann, Walls of Jericho, p. 393.

  “And if you just hold out long enough”: Stewart interview.

  “we stand on the House bill”: PPP, Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963–64, p. 328.

  “You be sure that you explain to him”: TPR, Lyndon B. Johnson, vol. 4, p. 945.

/>   “so I never learned to swim”: Michael Beschloss, Taking Charge: Lyndon Johnson’s Secret White House Tapes (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997), p. 268.

  “President Kennedy could have lost this bill”: Whalen and Whalen, Longest Debate, p. 139.

  9: We Shall Now Begin to Fight

  “I believe the Senate is prepared now”: PPP, Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963–64, p. 343.

  Dirksen’s openly voiced doubts: MacNeil, Dirksen, p. 205.

  “There will be no wheels and no deals”: Whalen and Whalen, Longest Debate, p. 140.

  “The secret of passing this bill”: Horn log, pp. 29–30, EMDP.

  Organized religion had played a key role: Findlay, Church People in the Struggle, p. 57.

  Newspaper accounts of the debate: Charlotte Observer, Aug. 25, 1963.

  THE CRUCIAL SENATE FIGHT: Mann, Walls of Jericho, p. 398.

  Because the Senate did not have the usual option: John G. Stewart, Witness to the Promised Land: Observations on Congress and the Presidency from the Pages of “Christianity and Crisis” (Santa Ana, Calif.: Seven Locks Press, 2005), p. 22.

  Richard Russell was first on his feet: Whalen and Whalen, Longest Debate, p. 141.

  “It is much more drastic than any bill”: Ibid., pp. 142–43.

  “This is such a moment”: Loevy, ed., Civil Rights Act of 1964, p. 218.

  Humphrey and Kuchel and their troops: Horn log, p. 34, EMDP; author interview with Peter Smith, June 19, 2013.

  Such diligence impressed even Lyndon Johnson: TPR, Lyndon B. Johnson, vol. 5, p. 151.

  “better fluid than frozen”: Horn log, p. 37, EMDP.

  Indeed, Humphrey was proving that it was possible: John G. Stewart manuscript, quoted in Loevy, ed., Civil Rights Act of 1964, p. 221.

  “The Negro was freed of his chains”: TPR, Lyndon B. Johnson, vol. 5, p. 198.

  “the heaviest cost of all”: Bipartisan Civil Rights Newsletter, Mar. 16, 1964, Burke Marshall papers, Box 27, JFKL.

  That same day, Robert Kimball: Horn log, p. 43, EMDP.

  By this point, the strain: Bipartisan Civil Rights Newsletter, Mar. 17, 1964, Marshall Papers, Box 27, JFKL.

  no idea seemed too far-fetched: Legislative Files, Civil Rights, Box 241, HHHP; author email exchange with William Connell.

  “If fifty Negroes came”: Horn log, p. 54, EMDP.

  By this point, the southerners were dragging: Ibid., pp. 54, 61b.

  At a meeting with the floor leaders’ group: Ibid., p. 63.

  “There is a feeling that Martin Luther King should stay out”: Ibid., p. 67.

  “We shall now begin to fight the war”: Whalen and Whalen, Longest Debate, p. 147.

  “I cannot overemphasize the historic importance”: CR, 88th Congress, 2nd Session, p. 6529.

  “This issue should not be a partisan fight”: Ibid., p. 6553.

  Johnson telephoned Ted Kennedy: TPR, Lyndon B. Johnson, vol. 5, p. 580.

  Even as the Senate opened debate: New York Times, Mar. 31, 1964.

  The mood of the Senate: Author interview with Daniel K. Inouye, June 2012.

  For all the presumed drama: Mudd, Place to Be, p. 144.

  “Let there be extended debate”: CR, p. 6574.

  “It may take some time”: Ibid., pp. 6606–7, 6637.

  Soon enough, Russell’s bumptious colleague: Ibid., p. 6651.

  But Thurmond was having none of this: Ibid., p. 6662.

  “Baseball fan. Roman bearing”: Mudd, Place to Be, p. 148.

  Indeed, by this stage: Fite, Richard B. Russell, Jr., p. 1; Caro, Master of the Senate, p. 209.

  “incomparably the truest current Senate type”: Fite, Richard B. Russell, Jr., p. 126.

  Russell eschewed the crude populist racism: Caro, Master of the Senate, pp. 185–86.

  he was fighting a losing battle: Fite, Richard B. Russell, Jr., pp. 337–42.

  in occasional public flashes: Caro, Master of the Senate, p. 191.

  “I do not think much of him”: Ibid., p. 194.

  “I don’t like to say too much”: Zephyr Wright OH, LBJL.

  State Senator Lamar Plunkett: Mann, Walls of Jericho, p. 402.

  “no case in history of a mongrel race”: Ibid.

  In truth, for all his erudition: Caro, Master of the Senate, pp. 470–71.

  “We knew there was no way in hell”: Herman E. Talmadge, Talmadge: A Political Legacy, a Politician’s Life (Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers, 1987), p. 195.

  “Dirksen asked us to take a look at the bill”: Loevy interview with Flynn, Collection 151, EMDP.

  “We met with him literally fourteen hours a day”: Mackaman, Long Hard Furrow, p. 77.

  “it will be one great headache”: Ibid., p. 73.

  Dirksen’s concern was also fueled: Robert Samuel Smith, Race, Labor, and Civil Rights (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2008), p. 26.

  They persuaded him to hold off: Mackaman, Long Hard Furrow, p. 78.

  If the Senate lacks a quorum: CR, p. 6863.

  An embarrassed Humphrey explained: New York Times, Apr. 5, 1964.

  “My position is no amendments”: Horn log, p. 79, EMDP.

  few new arguments to be made: CR, p. 7032.

  “No Southerner has been elected President”: Ibid., p. 7035.

  The segregationists suggested: Ibid., p. 7098.

  “In spite of the protestations”: Ibid., p. 6820.

  Sometimes, the southerners simply told lies: Ibid., p. 8346.

  The exchanges were not without humor: Ibid., p. 7418.

  But no amount of levity could mask: Ibid., p. 8052.

  “charm never covered up a running sore”: Ibid., pp. 8062–64.

  Humphrey was now quick to dismiss Wallace’s performance: TPR, Lyndon B. Johnson, vol. 5, p. 751.

  “The principle requires no argument”: CR, p. 7064.

  “a carte blanche bill”: Ibid., p. 5074.

  That afternoon, Stephen Horn: Horn log, p. 82, EMDP.

  Meantime, Everett Dirksen kept noodling: Mackaman, Long Hard Furrow, p. 79.

  “Then we’ve got him”: Horn log, p. 84, EMDP.

  “Do you think that’s true?”: TPR, Lyndon B. Johnson, vol. 5, pp. 891–92.

  “We have not suffered from this effort”: CR, p. 7380.

  No Republicans were present: Adam Clymer, Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography (New York: William Morrow, 1999), pp. 57–58.

  John Stewart was lobbied fiercely by Betty Friedan: Stewart interview.

  there was widespread concern among civil rights supporters: Mackaman, Long Hard Furrow, p. 80.

  “I wouldn’t leave Dick Russell”: TPR, Lyndon B. Johnson, vol. 5, p. 959.

  10: Alternatives and Substitutes

  “Don’t you break out in a sweat”: Horn log, p. 87, EMDP.

  “You can’t give people blood tests”: Ibid., p. 103.

  “There are enough groups and interests”: John Stewart manuscript, quoted in Loevy, ed., Civil Rights Act of 1964, pp. 96–97.

  shortly before midnight: CR, p. 7799.

  At this point, the bells: Horn log, p. 94, EMDP.

  Dirksen at long last introduced his fair employment amendments: CR, p. 8192.

  Dirksen’s proposals would: New York Times, Apr. 17, 1964.

  Dirksen also announced: Mackaman, Long Hard Furrow, p. 85.

  That evening, Humphrey and Kuchel’s staff analysis: Horn log, pp. 97–98, EMDP.

  “we’ve lost our virginity”: Ibid., p. 102.

  “We are not going to take out Title VII”: New York Times, Apr. 19, 1964.

  Katzenbach himself acknowledged: Horn log, p. 106, EMDP.

  “He was better than the player”: CR, p. 8451.

  “It keeps the local spirit”: Mackaman, Long Hard Furrow, p. 87.

  “The more we see of the amendments”: Stewart manuscript, cited in Loevy, ed., Civil Rights Act of 1964, p. 252.

  “southerners know they are in deep trouble”: Ibid., p. 102.

  a case “of age resisting youth”:
Mann, Walls of Jericho, p. 401.

  Richard Russell himself had acknowledged: Ibid., pp. 401–2.

  “The jig is just about up”: Stewart manuscript, quoted in Loevy, ed., Civil Rights Act of 1964, pp. 95–96.

  Talmadge proposed to guarantee a jury: CR, p. 8650.

  “I believe the Senate can look forward”: Whalen and Whalen, Longest Debate, p. 167.

  Russell now took the floor: CR, p. 8666.

  “In short,” Stewart concluded: Stewart manuscript, quoted in Loevy, ed., Civil Rights Act of 1966, pp. 94–95.

  “Let’s not kid ourselves”: Horn log, p. 129, EMDP.

  not enough to attract Russell: CR, p. 9135.

  “Must I do that?”: Mackaman, Long Hard Furrow, p. 96.

  “My other phone is ringing”: Robert Dallek, “Lyndon B. Johnson,” in Robert A. Wilson, ed., Character Above All (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995), p. 109.

  “the very best of friends”: Dirksen letter to Richard Okamoto, Apr. 3, 1964, EMDP.

  “I think you got a point there”: TPR, Lyndon B. Johnson, vol. 4, p. 101.

  “You couldn’t name a commission”: Hulsey, Everett Dirksen and His Presidents, p. 186.

  “Do you want him appointed?”: TPR, Lyndon B. Johnson, vol. 2, pp. 523–24.

  “You say you want the House bill”: Whalen and Whalen, Longest Debate, p. 171.

  Johnson was having none of that: TPR, Lyndon B. Johnson, vol. 6, p. 326.

  “I’m against any amendments”: Ibid., p. 360.

  “The hell with them”: Jeffrey Frank, Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2013), p. 220.

  The pro-civil-rights forces immediately feared: CR, p. 9810.

  “I say that couldn’t happen in the South”: New York Times, May 2, 1964.

  “How about Christmas?”: CR, p. 9854.

  for mental observation: Mudd, Place to Be, p. 146.

  “I’m trying to unscrew the inscrutable”: MacNeil, Dirksen, p. 234.

  “virtually every idea he held”: Everett McKinley Dirksen, The Education of a Senator (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998), p. 8.

  In 1950, when Dirksen first ran: MacNeil, Dirksen, p. 129.

  Dirksen had never made any secret of his qualms: Mackaman, Long Hard Furrow, p. 102.

  “The Senator grew up seeing both sides”: Elizabeth Drew, “The Politics of Cloture,” The Reporter, July 16, 1964, p. 21.