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

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An Idea Whose Time Has Come: Two Presidents, Two Parties, and the Battle for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Page 46

by Todd S. Purdum


  Nixon, Richard

  on black vote

  on Civil Rights Act of 1957

  in presidential election of 1960

  in presidential election of 1968

  resignation of

  vice presidential office of

  No Strings

  Norton, Eleanor Holmes

  Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

  Nugent, Patrick

  Obama, Barack

  O’Boyle, Patrick

  O’Brien, Lawrence

  civil rights bill and

  on Halleck

  LBJ and

  O’Dell, Jack

  O’Donnell, Kenneth

  O’Grady, Jane

  Orrick, William

  Paar, Jack

  Parks, Rosa

  Patterson, Floyd.

  Patterson, John

  Paul, Rand

  Peabody, Mrs. Malcolm

  Pearson, James

  Pemberton, H. L.

  Plessy v. Ferguson

  Poff, Dick

  Powell, Adam Clayton

  Powell, Colin

  “Present Crisis, The” (Lowell)

  Prince Edward County

  Profiles in Courage (Kennedy)

  Proxmire, William

  public accommodations, desegregation of

  public schools, desegregation of

  civil rights bill and

  Eisenhower and

  in Little Rock

  in New Orleans

  in Prince Edward County

  Supreme Court on

  University of Alabama

  University of Mississippi

  Quie, Albert

  Quorum Club

  Randall, Tony

  Randolph, A. Philip

  Rauh, Joseph

  background of

  Byrd and

  civil rights bill and

  LBJ and

  on Mitchell

  Rauschenbusch, Walter

  Rayburn, Sam

  Reagan, Ronald

  Reconstruction

  Reedy, George

  on Dirksen

  LBJ and

  Reilly, John

  Reporter, The

  Reston, James

  Reuther, Roy

  Reuther, Victor

  Reuther, Walter

  Reynolds, Don B.

  Reynolds, John W.

  Ribicoff, Abraham

  Riedel, Richard

  Roach, Peggy

  Robb, Lynda

  Roberts, Juanita

  Robertson, Willis

  Robeson, Paul

  Robinson, Jackie

  Rockefeller, Nelson

  Rockwell, George Lincoln

  Rodino, Peter

  Rogers, Byron

  Rometsch, Ellen

  Rooney, John

  Roosevelt, Franklin D.

  Roosevelt, James

  Rosenbaum, Irving

  Rosenthal, Jack

  Rostow, Eugene

  Roth, Lillian

  Royall, Kenneth

  Rusk, Dean

  Russell, Bill

  Russell, Richard Brevard, Jr.

  background of

  civil rights bill and

  on the Fifteenth Amendment

  on Humphrey

  on JFK

  LBJ and

  reaction to JFK’s assassination

  Rustin, Bayard

  Safire, William

  Saigon

  St. Augustine

  St. George, Katherine

  St. Onge, William

  Salinger, Pierre

  Sattefield, John C.

  Saturday Evening Post

  Schlei, Norbert

  Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr.

  on Big Six meeting

  on integration

  on LBJ

  Schoumacher, David

  Schwerner, Michael

  SCLC. See Southern Christian Leadership Conference

  Scott, Tim

  Scottsboro Boys

  segregation

  of buses as illegal

  Plessy v. Ferguson and

  in public schools

  from Reconstruction era to the 1960s

  in restaurants

  statistics on

  See also desegregation

  Seigenthaler, John

  Selma

  Senate Commerce Committee

  Senate Rule XXII

  Senner, George

  Senz, Eddie

  sex discrimination

  Shepard, Taz

  Sherman, Norman

  Shriver, Sargent

  Sidey, Hugh

  Simpson, Milward

  Sinatra, Frank

  Sitrin, Gloria

  Small, Bill

  Smathers, George

  Smith, B. Julian

  Smith, “Cotton Ed”

  Smith, Howard W.

  amendments proposed by

  call for vote on civil rights bill

  at debate on civil rights bill

  fifth House Rules Committee hearing and

  scheduling of hearings

  Smith, Jerome

  Smith, Margaret Chase

  Smith, Peter

  SNCC. See Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

  Somerset Club

  Sorensen, Ted

  civil rights bill and

  JFK and

  LBJ and

  Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

  Southern Manifesto

  Soviet Union

  Starr, Ringo

  Stennis, John

  Stevens, George, Jr.

  Stevenson, Adlai

  Stewart, John

  civil rights bill and

  on Dirksen

  on LBJ

  on Mansfield

  March on Washington and

  on Mitchell

  Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

  Sullivan, William

  Sumner, Charles

  Supreme Court

  Civil Rights Act of 1964 and

  on discrimination in facilities used in interstate transportation

  on segregation in public schools

  on segregation of buses

  Voting Rights Act and

  Taft, Robert A.

  Taft, William Howard

  Taft-Hartley labor law

  Talmadge, Herman

  Taylor, George

  Taylor, Silas

  Tea Party

  Teasdale, Kenneth

  Thirteenth Amendment

  Thomas, George

  Thomas, Norman

  Thompson, Frank

  Thurmond, Strom

  Time

  on civil rights bill

  Humphrey on cover of

  Kennedy brothers on cover of

  on LBJ

  MLK on cover of

  on Russell

  Torn, Rip

  Tower, John

  Truman, Harry

  civil rights initiatives of

  JFK on

  LBJ and

  MacArthur and

  Tuscaloosa

  UAW

  Udall, Stewart

  unemployment rates

  United Press International

  University of Alabama

  University of Mississippi

  USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.

  USS Maddox

  USS Philadelphia

  Valenti, Jack

  Valeo, Frank

  Vance, Cyrus

  Vandiver, Ernest

  Vanocur, Sander

  Vidal, Gore

  Vietnam

  Virginia

  voting

  in Alabama

  civil rights bills and

  Eisenhower and

  Voting Rights Act of 1965

  Wallace, George C.

  on civil rights bill

  in presidential primaries

  resistance to integration of schools

  riots in Birmingham and

  Walton, William

&nbs
p; Ware, Charlie

  Warren, Earl

  Washington, Kenneth

  Washington Post

  Waters, Bernard

  Wayne, John

  Webb, James

  Welk, Lawrence

  Weltner, Charles

  Whalen, Charles

  White, Byron

  White, Lee

  White, William S.

  Whitener, Basil Lee

  Whittington, Geraldine

  Wicker, Tom

  Wilkins, Roy

  on civil rights bill

  Dirksen and

  JFK and

  LBJ and

  March on Washington and

  MLK and

  SCLC and

  at signing of civil rights bill

  Williams, A. D.

  Williams, Camilla

  Williams, Gene

  Williams, Helen

  Williams, John Bell

  Willis, Ed

  Willkie, Wendell

  Wilson, Woodrow

  Wofford, Harris

  Woodward, Joanne

  Workers’ Education Program

  Wright, Zephyr

  Young, Andrew

  Young, Milton

  Young, Whitney

  civil rights bill and

  JFK and

  LBJ and

  Lewis and

  On February 12, 1963, President John F. Kennedy held a reception at the White House to mark Lincoln’s Birthday and the one hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Seated left to right are Ethel Kennedy, Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson, and John and Jacqueline Kennedy. Behind them are some of the eight hundred black guests, who included many civil rights leaders and entertainment figures.

  Fred Shuttlesworth, Ralph D. Abernathy, and Martin Luther King Jr. march in work clothes on Good Friday, April 12, 1963, in Birmingham, Alabama, eschewing Easter finery to protest the segregation of downtown department stores. King would be arrested and placed in solitary confinement, where he would write “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

  In Birmingham in May 1963, public safety commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor’s police dogs lunge at seventeen-year-old Walter Gadsden, an image that outraged President Kennedy—and the world.

  Deputy Attorney General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach wipes his face as he confronts Governor George C. Wallace at the “schoolhouse door” on June 11, 1963, over the integration of the University of Alabama.

  That same evening, President Kennedy delivers a nationally televised speech proposing comprehensive civil rights legislation.

  Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy makes impromptu remarks to civil rights protestors gathered outside the Justice Department on June 14, 1963.

  The civil rights advocate Joseph L. Rauh (left) confers with Clarence Mitchell and Roy Wilkins of the NAACP about lobbying strategy in August 1963.

  Part of the interdenominational throng of demonstrators who descended on the National Mall on August 28, 1963, for the March on Washington.

  Unlikely allies: Representatives William McCulloch of Ohio (left), the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, and Emanuel Celler of New York, the committee’s chairman, were crucial backers of the civil rights bill, designated as H.R. 7152.

  “The Ev and Charlie Show”: Senate Minority Leader Everett McKinley Dirksen of Illinois (seated) and House Minority Leader Charles A. Halleck of Indiana, Republicans whose support for H.R. 7152 was indispensable, conferring on the set of NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

  Representative Howard Smith of Virginia, the chairman of the House Rules Committee, was one of the most powerful Southern Democrats in the House and an implacable foe of the bill.

  “Let Us Continue”: President Lyndon B. Johnson addresses a joint session of Congress on November 27, 1963, vowing to pass the late President Kennedy’s stalled agenda, including the civil rights bill.

  Geraldine Whittington, President Johnson’s newly hired secretary, with civil rights leaders in the Cabinet Room. Left to right: James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality, Roy Wilkins of the NAACP, Whitney Young Jr. of the National Urban League, and Martin Luther King Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

  A copy of H.R. 7152, annotated by the House of Representatives’ parliamentarian upon the House’s passage of the bill on February 10, 1964.

  Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota, the Democratic majority whip and floor leader for the civil rights bill.

  The Johnson Treatment: Lyndon Johnson lobbies Everett Dirksen.

  Senator Richard B. Russell Jr. of Georgia, the indefatigable leader of the Senate’s Southern bloc through a record-setting filibuster, and segregation’s staunchest defender.

  President Johnson throws out the first pitch on opening day at D.C. Stadium, April 13, 1964. During the game, a sudden quorum call would compel pro-civil rights senators to return to the Senate floor. Left to right: Everett Dirksen, Speaker John McCormack of Massachusetts, Johnson, presidential aide Dave Powers, Hubert Humphrey, Los Angeles Angels manager Bill Rigney, Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina.

  Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield of Montana, in his office.

  The bipartisan Senate coalition stands behind Dirksen and Humphrey as they celebrate the cloture vote on the civil rights bill, June 10, 1964. Among the senators pictured are Thomas Kuchel (R-California) and Paul Douglas (D-Illinois), second and third from left; Jacob Javits (R-New York) and Leverett Saltonstall (R-Massachusetts), behind Dirksen; and Joseph Pastore (D-Rhode Island) and Hugh Scott (R-Pennsylvania), flanking Humphrey.

  Lyndon Johnson signs the civil rights bill into law on July 2, 1964, surrounded by (left to right): Charles Halleck, William McCulloch, Representative Peter Rodino of New Jersey, Martin Luther King, Emanuel Celler, Representative John Lindsay of New York, and others.

  Acknowledgments

  I owe this book to Cullen Murphy, editor nonpareil. For a long time, he urged me to find such a project, and in 2011, anticipating the anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, he came up with this one. I thank him for his wise counsel at Vanity Fair, and not least for the invaluable suggestions he offered after a careful reading of a near-final draft of this manuscript. He is a valiant prince, a true friend, and a good writer.

  Paul Golob at Henry Holt and Company (backed by the generous support of Holt’s publisher, Steve Rubin) bought the proposal and then made the book a reality, with keen intelligence and critical support at every step. Having worked with Paul on another book a decade ago, I understood his amazing skills—his seemingly bottomless font of general knowledge, and his swift and sure way with a pencil. It was, nevertheless, a pleasure to be reminded what a haimish guy he is, the Steve Allen of editors. He makes hard work feel fun, and he has my enduring gratitude. My lawyer, Bob Barnett, made the project feasible in a way that would have done his fellow Waukeganite Jack Benny proud. He knows how much I owe him, and tells me, with good humor, by the billable hour. Graydon Carter and Chris Garrett have given me unstinting support at Vanity Fair, and indulged me for what amounted to a six-month hiatus. John Harris and Jim VandeHei at Politico took a chance on an aging player, and offered me a new foothold in the daily news game.

  Emma Hurt, a Washington neighbor and undergraduate at Rice University, spent weeks reviewing the Congressional Record’s account of the Senate debate on the bill, producing elegant, accurate, accessible summaries of high-blown oratory and low-down dealings. I simply could not have written this book without her help.

  My old friend and New York Times colleague Adam Clymer bequeathed me a singular gift early on: reams of his own research from an abandoned book project on the bill, including priceless interviews with colleagues and family members of Congressman William McCulloch, the unsung hero of the tale. Adam’s generosity was not surprising, but it was stunning all the same, and he went on to scrub the manuscript with the eye of the veteran congressional correspondent he is, catching errors and infelicities too numerous and embarrassing to mention. David Shribman kindly shared other M
cCulloch materials. Gwen Ifill, another fond friend from Times days, did me the great honor of reviewing the manuscript, and with her shrewd and discerning eye brought essential perspective. Karen Avrich, author and researcher extraordinaire, checked the facts—and so much more. To say that Karen is the class of her field is to say that Everest is a hill. I labor in her shadow, and all the mistakes are mine. Barclay Walsh gave key early research aid.

  Melissa Goldstein, one of the nation’s premier photo researchers, found indelible images that brought the book’s characters to life. The design team at Holt—Rick Pracher, who conceived the striking cover, and Meryl Levavi, who designed the elegant, readable text—made the book look great. Emi Ikkanda crossed all the t’s with grace and good cheer, and Maggie Richards in marketing and Pat Eisemann in publicity always knew what to do, and when to urge an armchair flack to step back. The production editor, Rita Quintas, and copy editor, Emily DeHuff, eased the process of putting the pages between covers.

  Anyone who would presume to write about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 stands in incalculable debt to the late Representative Charles Whalen of Ohio, and his wife, Barbara, who wrote the pioneering one-volume account of H.R. 7152’s passage. Congressman Whalen not only knew Bill McCulloch, but interviewed many of the participants in the fight for the bill who have long since died, preserving their priceless firsthand recollections. The scholarship of Robert D. Loevy, Robert Mann, and Nick Kotz—each of whom has written or edited important works dealing with the bill—blazed the trail I followed. Mick Caouette, whose documentary on Hubert Humphrey recorded precious voices, generously shared interview transcripts. The journalist Nick Bryant uncovered riveting, little-known details about John Kennedy’s early record on civil rights in his book, The Bystander: John F. Kennedy and the Struggle for Black Equality.

  Two indefatigable diarists, one from each party, kept the most important contemporary accounts of Senate action on the bill: the late Stephen Horn, legislative assistant to Senator Thomas Kuchel of California, and John Stewart, who played the same role for Hubert Humphrey. Horn’s meticulous daily log and Stewart’s episodic but equally insightful diary entries were my constant companions in re-creating the long days of the filibuster. Horn, who went on from the Senate to become a university administrator and congressman from California, died in 2011. But John Stewart and his accomplished wife, Nancy, are very much alive. They not only answered endless questions and read the manuscript in draft, but also welcomed me as an overnight guest at their home and offered the gift of unexpected friendship.

 

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