President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Fair Housing Act (Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968) into law one week after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, or sex. The …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonMartin Luther King Jr.National Association of Real Estate BoardsNational Association of RealtorsHouse Rules Committeehousingcivil-rightsinstitutional-racismreal-estate-industrycorporate-opposition
The King-Anderson bill, President Kennedy’s Medicare proposal introduced by Representative Cecil King and Senator Clinton Anderson, is defeated in committee despite strong public support after intense lobbying by the American Medical Association, corporate healthcare interests, and …
Cecil R. KingClinton AndersonJohn F. KennedyWilbur MillsHarry Byrd+4 moremedicarehealthcarelobbyingamacorporate-opposition+2 more
On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment, providing the three-fourths majority of states required to add women’s suffrage to the U.S. Constitution. The decisive vote in the Tennessee House of Representatives came down to 24-year-old State Representative …
Harry T. BurnFebb E. BurnTennessee General AssemblyCarrie Chapman CattSue Shelton Whitewomens-suffrageconstitutional-amendmentdemocratic-expansioncorporate-oppositionhistoric-victory
Throughout the 1910s, as women’s suffrage gained momentum following state victories in the West and increasing militant activism in the East, multiple corporate interests mobilized systematic opposition to protect their economic interests from potential voter-supported reforms. The liquor …
Liquor IndustryTextile ManufacturersRailroad CompaniesNational Association Opposed to Woman Suffragewomens-suffragecorporate-oppositioninstitutional-resistanceeconomic-interestsanti-democratic-forces
On November 18, 1874, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, in response to the “Woman’s Crusade,” a series of temperance demonstrations that had swept through New York and much of the Midwest in 1873-74. The WCTU initially focused …
Frances WillardAnnie WittenmyerWoman's Christian Temperance UnionLiquor Industrywomens-suffragetemperance-movementcorporate-oppositionsocial-reformliquor-industry