Lyndon B. Johnson
Civil Rights Act of 1964

On November 27, 1963, Johnson delivered his "Let Us Continue" speech to Congress, saying that "No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy's memory than the earliest possible passage of the Civil Rights Bill for which he fought so long." The wave of national grief following the assassination gave enormous momentum to Johnson's promise to carry out Kennedy's plans.

Johnson asked Robert Kennedy to spearhead the undertaking on Capitol Hill. This provided adequate political cover for Johnson should the effort fail, but if it were successful, Johnson would receive ample credit. Biographer Caro notes that the bill Kennedy had submitted was facing the same tactics that prevented the passage of civil rights bills in the past: Southern congressmen and senators used congressional procedure to prevent it from coming to a vote. In particular, they held up all of the major bills Kennedy had proposed and that were considered urgent, especially the tax reform bill, to force the bill's supporters to pull it. For Johnson's civil rights bill to reach the House floor for a vote, the president needed to find a way to circumvent Representative Howard W. Smith, the chairman of the House Rules Committee. Johnson used a discharge petition to force it onto the House floor. Facing a growing threat that they would be bypassed, the Rules Committee approved the bill and moved it to the floor of the full House, which soon passed it by a vote of 290–110. Johnson convinced Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield to put the House bill directly into consideration by the full Senate, bypassing the Senate Judiciary Committee and its segregationist chairman James Eastland. Since bottling up the civil rights bill in a committee was no longer an option, the anti-civil rights senators were left with the filibuster as their only remaining tool. Overcoming the filibuster required the support of at least 20 Republicans, who were growing less supportive because their party was about to nominate for president a candidate who opposed the bill. According to Caro, Johnson ultimately could convince Republican leader Everett Dirksen to support the bill that amassed the necessary Republican votes to overcome the filibuster in March 1964; the bill passed the Senate by a vote of 71–29.

Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law on July 2. The act outlawed discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, or sex. It prohibits racial segregation in public accommodations and employment discrimination, and strengthened the federal government's power to investigate racial and gender employment discrimination. The following evening, Johnson told aide Bill Moyers, "I think we may have lost the South for your lifetime – and mine", anticipating a backlash from Southern whites against Johnson's Democratic Party.
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