Civil Rights Act of 1968: Difference between revisions

Two developments revived the bill.<ref name="propublica.org"/> The [[Kerner Commission]] report on the [[Long Hot Summer of 1967|1967 race riots]] strongly recommended "a comprehensive and enforceable federal open housing law,"<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.eisenhowerfoundation.org/docs/kerner.pdf |title=Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders – Summary of Report |access-date=December 18, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141222024522/http://www.eisenhowerfoundation.org/docs/kerner.pdf |archive-date=December 22, 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4704&context=flr |title=Matthew J. Termine "Promoting Residential Integration Through the Fair Housing Act" 79 Fordham Law Review 1367 (2011). |access-date=December 18, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141218031331/http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4704&context=flr |archive-date=December 18, 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> and was cited regularly by Congress members arguing for the legislation.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://mondale.law.umn.edu/fair_housing.php#_debates |title="Selected U.S. Senate proceedings and debates on fair housing, 1965-1971" University of Minnesota Law Library |access-date=December 18, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140923154533/http://mondale.law.umn.edu/fair_housing.php#_debates |archive-date=September 23, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The final breakthrough came in the aftermath of the April 4, 1968 [[assassination of Martin Luther King,&nbsp;Jr.]], and the [[King assassination riots|civil unrest]] across the country following King's death.<ref name=Kotz05>{{cite book|last=Kotz|first=Nick|title=Judgment days : Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King,&nbsp;Jr., and the laws that changed America|year=2005|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|location=Boston|isbn=0-618-08825-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/judgmentdayslynd00kotz/page/417 417]|chapter=14. Another Martyr|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/judgmentdayslynd00kotz/page/417}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=%2Fprogram_offices%2Ffair_housing_equal_opp%2Faboutfheo%2Fhistory |title="History of Fair Housing" US Department of Housing and Urban Development |access-date=July 4, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120327032116/http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=%2Fprogram_offices%2Ffair_housing_equal_opp%2Faboutfheo%2Fhistory |archive-date=March 27, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> On April 5, Johnson wrote a letter to the [[United States House of Representatives]] urging passage of the Fair Housing Act.<ref name="LBJ5April68">{{cite web|title=182 – Letter to the Speaker of the House Urging Enactment of the Fair Housing Bill|url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/letter-the-speaker-the-house-urging-enactment-the-fair-housing-bill|last=Johnson|first=Lyndon Baines|date=5 April 1968|publisher=American Presidency Project|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200508021232/https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/letter-the-speaker-the-house-urging-enactment-the-fair-housing-bill|archive-date=May 8, 2020|access-date=7 May 2020|quote=We should pass the Fair Housing law when the Congress convenes next week.}}</ref> The Rules Committee, "jolted by the repeated civil disturbances virtually outside its door," finally ended its hearings on April 8.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.huduser.org/portal/Periodicals/CITYSCPE/VOL4NUM3/mathias.pdf |title=Honorable Charles Mathias, Jr. "Fair Housing Legislation: Not an Easy Row To Hoe" US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research |access-date=December 26, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141227020632/http://www.huduser.org/portal/Periodicals/CITYSCPE/VOL4NUM3/mathias.pdf |archive-date=December 27, 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> With newly urgent attention from legislative director [[Joseph Califano]] and [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|Speaker of the House]] [[John William McCormack|John McCormack]], the bill (which was previously stalled) passed the House by a wide margin on April 10.<ref name=Kotz05 /><ref name=Risen18Jul12>{{cite news|last=Risen|first=Clay|title=The Unmaking of the President: Lyndon Johnson believed that his withdrawal from the 1968 presidential campaign would free him to solidify his legacy|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/president-lbj.html?c=y&page=3|access-date=18 July 2012|newspaper=Smithsonian Magazine|page=3,5 and 6 in online version|date=April 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130104181743/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/president-lbj.html?c=y&page=3|archive-date=4 January 2013}}</ref>