President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in employment and public accommodations. The legislation passes only after defeating a 60-working-day filibuster led by the “Southern …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonSouthern Democratic SenatorsRichard RussellStrom ThurmondSouthern business interests+1 morecivil-rightsinstitutional-capturesouthern-strategycorporate-resistancevoting-rights
President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first federal civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, establishing the Civil Rights Division within the Department of Justice and authorizing federal prosecutors to seek injunctions against interference with voting rights. However, …
Dwight D. EisenhowerLyndon B. JohnsonStrom ThurmondRichard RussellAttorney General Herbert Brownell+1 morevoting-rightscivil-rightsfederal-legislationfilibustersouthern-strategy+1 more
On March 12, 1956, as the second anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education approaches, Senator Walter F. George rises in the U.S. Senate to announce the latest weapon in the segregationist arsenal—the “Declaration of Constitutional Principles,” known as the Southern Manifesto. Senator …
Walter F. GeorgeHarry F. ByrdStrom Thurmond19 U.S. Senators82 U.S. Representativesmassive-resistancesouthern-manifestocongressional-obstructionstates-rightsconstitutional-defiance
On July 17, 1948, approximately 6,000 Southern Democrats from 13 states converge on Birmingham, Alabama, to form the States’ Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrats) after walking out of the Democratic National Convention in protest of the party’s civil rights platform. The convention …
Strom ThurmondFielding L. WrightStates Rights Democratic PartyDemocratic PartyAlabama delegation+1 moreracial-politicssegregationsouthern-strategystates-rightspolitical-realignment