The year 2014 marked the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a milestone in the struggle to extend civil, political, and legal rights and protections to African Americans, including former slaves and their descendants, and to end segregation in public and private facilities. The U.S. Senate played an integral part in this story.
The long Senate debate over the Civil Rights Act began on February 10, 1964, when the House of Representatives passed H.R. 7152. When the House-passed bill arrived in the Senate on February 26, Majority Leader Mike Mansfield placed it directly on the Senate calendar rather than refer it to the Judiciary Committee. Chaired by civil rights opponent James Eastland of Mississippi, that committee had become a graveyard for civil rights legislation. Mansfield moved to take up the measure on March 9 and it became the Senate's pending business on March 26, prompting southern senators to launch a filibuster. That protracted filibuster, along with the broader debate over the bill, continued through 60 days of debate, until cloture was invoked on June 10, 1964. This marked the first time in its history that the Senate invoked cloture on a civil rights bill. The Senate passed the bill on June 19, 1964, by a vote of 73 to 27.
Introduction Strategy Debate & Filibuster Cloture & Passage ChronologyThe Senate and Civil Rights
In 2014 the United States Senate commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, signed into law on July 2, 1964, with a special feature that highlights the Senate’s important role in that legislative story. Sections focus on the strategy of the bill’s proponents, the Senate debate and filibuster, the cloture motion that allowed for a final vote, and the Senate’s passage of the bill on June 19, 1964. The story begins with an overview of the Senate’s consideration of civil rights legislation from the Civil War era into the early 1960s.
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