2Nicholas deB. Emanuel Celler of New York chaired the House Judiciary Committee for 22 years.

Nobody’s ever done it this way but it just might work,” the Johnson character tells Humphrey.

“The issue was again joined in 1964 when the Chair overruled a point of order that claimed that Rule XXV mandated the referral of a House bill that had been read twice, after a Senator objected to further proceedings thereon and asked that the bill be placed on the Calendar,” explains “Riddick’s Senate Procedure.”. We have talked for one hundred years or more. Civil rights supporters, including Mansfield, anticipated that Senator Richard Russell of Georgia, the leader of the Senate’s southern bloc of conservative Democrats, would oppose the bill.

When LBJ says his gambit would involve waiving the second reading, Humphrey responds that such a maneuver would send the bill straight to Judiciary.

You drink with Dirksen! 19Katzenbach, Some of It Was Fun: 119, 124–128.

5 by voice vote on October 2.

Russell pledged to fight the bill to the end.

Roll Call Vote on Civil Rights Act (Jun 19, 1964) PDF Related Link: Civil Rights Act of 1964. credit: U.S. Senate Historical Office. (8 February 1963): 2578, 2584. Attic, Thomas Jefferson BuildingWashington, D.C. 20515(202) 226-1300, /tiles/non-collection/o/oh_evnt_cr_cra64_mcculloch.xml, Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives.

For the first time in modern Senate history, the pro-civil rights forces seemed to be as organized as Senator Russell’s southern bloc of opposition. When the subcommittee convened on October 1, however, that goodwill eroded as communication broke down and the Democratic majority pushed for a stronger bill.

It was a presidential election year and, as one historian commented, Dirksen was asked “to deliver Republican votes in support of a Democratic president who could not bring along enough of his own party to seal the deal.” As the long civil rights debate unfolded, it did so with the backdrop of presidential primaries. When the secretary reached “Mr. The House has passed a version of the bill, but Johnson appears genuinely stumped at how to avoid sending  the bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee — a graveyard in this case since Chairman James Eastland of Mississippi would want no part of it.

You listen to Dirksen.”.

Events in the months before the Piqua meeting proved a flashpoint for action on civil rights.

The moment, dramatized in the play “All the Way” now at the Arena Stage, shows how LBJ used his legendary legislative maneuvering to achieve what is arguably his lasting legacy. “What is Ev Dirksen up to?” asked the Los Angeles Times.

Although the Democrats enjoyed a large majority in the Senate, the party’s deep divisions over the issue of civil rights required Humphrey, a Democrat, and Kuchel, a Republican, to seek the support and cooperation of a strong bipartisan coalition.
Senate rules required members to stand while speaking and to refrain from eating. “And on the civil rights issue we must rise with the occasion. “There is  a way we can completely bypass Eastland’s committee without either a discharge petition or a procedural vote. Waiting in the cloakroom was Arizona senator Carl Hayden, who had not answered when his name was called. Damage could still be done. Observers of the modern Senate know all too well that such a maneuver would work — it has become so routine that it hardly garners a mention. With Dirksen recuperating at home during the early days of June, Hickenlooper had free rein to sway Republicans votes.

Senators sat at their desks.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964: The Passage of the Law That Ended Racial Segregation (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997): 57–58; Risen, The Bill of the Century: 146–149. 23Katzenbach, Some of It Was Fun: 136; Mann, When Freedom Would Triumph: 168. It was an emotional appeal, from a crusader for equality. Historically, even the threat of a filibuster had been effective in killing or weakening civil rights legislation (this threat had been deployed successfully in 1957 and 1960, for example), making it the procedural choice for Senate foes of civil rights. As both sides counted heads, Mansfield announced that cloture would be attempted in early June. Privacy Policy   |   37

CQ Roll Call is a part of FiscalNote, the leading technology innovator at the intersection of global business and government. The Senate, with a bipartisan vote of 67-17, agreed to make the civil rights bill its pending business.

In the play, as in life, the presiding officer executed LBJ’s plan. After the House passed the bill, it was sent to the Senate for consideration. This meant that Dirksen had to deliver at least 25 votes from his 33-member caucus that was divided among 21 conservatives, five moderates, and seven liberals.

To pass a civil rights bill in 1964, the Senate proponents of that bill developed a three-part strategy.
A cloture motion is the only procedural means available in the Senate to forcibly end debate (including a filibuster) and bring about a vote on a bill, resolution, or nomination, by placing a time limit on further consideration.

6At the time, Judiciary subcommittees had numbers rather than names. They were opposed by nay votes from six Republicans and 21 Democrats. As Dirksen explained, “Senate aversion to cloture is traditional.” As the civil rights debate continued, the bill’s supporters understood very well the tremendous odds they faced. “The question is whether this Nation will be divided, or as we are taught in our … pledge of allegiance, one Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

By the opening of the 88th Congress (1963–1965), Members of the House had already begun to react to the civil rights crisis.

With cloture invoked, 100 hours of debate remained before a final vote, one hour for each senator.

“Had the ‘skim milk’ civil rights bill enacted in 1957 dealt with this problem as comprehensively, factually and completely as the bill now under consideration, we would have been saved from a lot of embarrassing situations like Little Rock, Birmingham, Jacksonville, and so forth,” Madden said when introducing the rule. No one could predict its outcome. Just as H.R. 241, enacted July 2, 1964) is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, and later sexual orientation. 7152.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L.

/tiles/non-collection/o/oh_evnt_cr_cra64_bowling.xml, /tiles/non-collection/o/oh_evnt_cr_cra1964_lbjlib.xml, Photograph by Cecil Stoughton, courtesy of the LBJ Library. Though Mansfield preferred to follow the Senate’s regular order, he explained that the reasons for “unusual procedures are too well known to require elaboration.” Mansfield urged the Senate to consider the bill without further delay. 5., Miscellaneous Proposals Regarding the Civil Rights of Persons Within the Jurisdiction of the United States, 88th Cong., 1st sess.

Details were discussed, agreements were made, and deals were struck as Dirksen worked to gain votes for cloture while maintaining the integrity of the House-passed bill. Demonstrators move along Constitution Avenue toward the Lincoln Memorial at March on Washington on August 28, 1963. In the presiding officer’s chair, Senator Lee Metcalf stated the order at hand: “Is it the sense of the Senate that the debate shall be brought to a close? With each response, the secretary marked off the tally sheet. /tiles/non-collection/o/oh_evnt_cr_cra64_discharge1.xml, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, Center for Legislative Archives, National Archives and Records Administration.