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Civil Rights Act of 1957: Difference between revisions
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==Legislative history== | ==Legislative history== | ||
[[File:Photograph of President Dwight D. Eisenhower Signing the Civil Rights Act of 1957 (H.R. 6127) in His Office at the Naval Base in Newport, Rhode Island - NARA - 7865612.jpg|thumb|220px|right|President Dwight D. Eisenhower signing the Civil Rights Act of 1957 on September 9, 1957]] | [[File:Photograph of President Dwight D. Eisenhower Signing the Civil Rights Act of 1957 (H.R. 6127) in His Office at the Naval Base in Newport, Rhode Island - NARA - 7865612.jpg|thumb|220px|right|President Dwight D. Eisenhower signing the Civil Rights Act of 1957 on September 9, 1957]] | ||
The | The Democratic [[Senate majority leader]], Lyndon B. Johnson of [[Texas]], who would play a vital role in the bill's passage in the Senate,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal64-1304621|title=Congress Approves Civil Rights Act of 1957|publisher=CQ Almanac|accessdate=April 13, 2022|archive-date=August 29, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220829062002/https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/login.php?requested=%2Fcqalmanac%2Fdocument.php%3Fid%3Dcqal64-1304621|url-status=live}}</ref> realized that the bill and its journey through Congress could tear apart his party, as southern Democrats vehemently opposed civil rights, and its northern members were strongly in favor of them. Southern Democratic senators occupied chairs of numerous important committees because of their long [[Seniority in the United States Senate|seniority]]. As, in the near-century between the end of Reconstruction and the 1960s, white Southerners voted solidly as a bloc for the Democrats, Southern Democrats in Congress rarely lost their seats in elections, ensuring that they had more seniority than Democratic members of Congress from other parts of the country. Johnson sent the bill to the [[United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary|Senate Judiciary Committee]], led by Democratic Senator [[James Eastland]] of [[Mississippi]], who drastically altered the bill.<ref>[https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1951-2000/The-Civil-Rights-Act-of-1957/ The Civil Rights Act of 1957] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307040555/https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1951-2000/The-Civil-Rights-Act-of-1957/ |date=March 7, 2022 }}. ''US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives''. Retrieved February 20, 2022.</ref> Democratic Senator [[Richard Russell Jr.]], of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] had denounced the bill as an example of the federal government seeking to impose its laws on states. Johnson sought recognition from civil rights advocates for passing the bill as well as recognition from the anti-civil rights Democrats for weakening the bill so much as to make it toothless.<ref name= Caro39>{{cite book |last=Caro |first= Robert |date= 2002|title= [[Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson]]|location= New York|publisher= Knopf|chapter= 39, You Do It|isbn=0-394-52836-0}}</ref> | ||
As well as a general if vague support for civil rights as [[the party of Lincoln]], Republicans saw that this could be an effective way to increase the number of [[Black Republicanism in the United States|Black Republican]] voters as the blocking of the Bill by the Democrats in the [[Southern Caucus]] would become obvious. They, like Johnson, also saw the potential for dividing the Democratic party's Northern and Southern wings. This meant that the (on this issue) liberal but hardball Republican operators like the [[Vice President]], [[Richard Nixon]], who had a constitutional right to chair the Senate took a great interest in the Bill. Conservative Republican Senators who were sympathetic to Southern arguments on [[States rights]] were more likely to vote on a party basis. On the other hand the Republicans were willing to quietly allow Democratic Southern obstruction if this meant that African-American and liberal voters would be more likely to see the culprits as Democrats.<ref name=CaroSenate36>{{cite book |last=caro,p.944-89 |first= Robert |date= 2002|title= [[Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson]]|location= New York|publisher= Knopf|chapter= 36. Choices|isbn=0-394-52836-0}}</ref> | As well as a general if vague support for civil rights as [[the party of Lincoln]], Republicans saw that this could be an effective way to increase the number of [[Black Republicanism in the United States|Black Republican]] voters as the blocking of the Bill by the Democrats in the [[Southern Caucus]] would become obvious. They, like Johnson, also saw the potential for dividing the Democratic party's Northern and Southern wings. This meant that the (on this issue) liberal but hardball Republican operators like the [[Vice President]], [[Richard Nixon]], who had a constitutional right to chair the Senate took a great interest in the Bill. Conservative Republican Senators who were sympathetic to Southern arguments on [[States rights]] were more likely to vote on a party basis. On the other hand the Republicans were willing to quietly allow Democratic Southern obstruction if this meant that African-American and liberal voters would be more likely to see the culprits as Democrats.<ref name=CaroSenate36>{{cite book |last=caro,p.944-89 |first= Robert |date= 2002|title= [[Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson]]|location= New York|publisher= Knopf|chapter= 36. Choices|isbn=0-394-52836-0}}</ref> | ||