A look back at the role of Illinois Sen. Everett Dirksen in passage of Civil Rights Act

Sixty years ago this summer, a presidential election was looming when, against difficult odds, Democrats and Republicans came together to pass the first meaningful civil rights bill since Reconstruction.

The nation was primed for the debate, having seen — often in dramatic TV news footage — the attacks aimed at Black activists, especially in the South, who risked their lives and livelihoods to call attention to the ills of segregation.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is what made “Whites Only” signs on drinking fountains, restrooms, waiting rooms and restaurants a thing of the past, while also codifying into law that equal opportunity meant no discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion and national origin.

When it’s discussed today, the legislation is remembered as a landmark achievement of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency or part of the unfinished legacy left by John F. Kennedy. But it took the combined efforts of Minnesota’s liberal icon, Sen. Hubert Humphrey, and a conservative Midwesterner from the mostly white Illinois town of Pekin, Everett Dirksen, to enshrine the protections into law.

Few in Congress had any direct, personal experience with the issues the legislation addressed either. Of the 435 members of the House, there were just five Black congressmen. The first Black senator since Reconstruction wouldn’t be elected for another two years.

And political parties at the time were split, with conservative and liberal elements in each. Conservative Democrats from the South could bottle up the legislation, abetted by conservative Republicans who were mostly from small states that saw the importance of preserving the power of the filibuster.

Moreover, many members of Congress, especially in the Senate, were loath to be seen legislating "only" in response to a protest movement. (Though, to be sure, members kept their finger on the pulse of what their constituents supported.)

In short, the work of allies in Congress was important to turn the tide, particularly among GOP moderates and conservatives, who were likely more persuadable of the bill’s merits than segregationist southerners.

A supporter of equal opportunity

Fortunately, Dirksen, who died in 1969, was such an ally. Steeped in faith and raised as the child of immigrants who received a fair shot in America, he felt equality of opportunity for all was a moral issue. He’d supported civil rights causes since the 1930s: anti-lynching bills, ending the poll tax, funding training for Black soldiers in skilled roles, establishing equal employment commissions and creating a civil rights division at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Dirksen had also built a reputation for amending bills enough to win cross-party support. His strategy was laudable then, if too rare today: "First, to get a bill; second, to get an acceptable bill; third, to get a workable bill; and, finally, to get an equitable bill."

He worked for four months behind the scenes to build a bipartisan compromise, making minor tweaks to assuage conservative fears of federal interference in private business while arguably making it easier in the final product to demonstrate a "pattern and practice" of discriminatory behavior.

"No one deserves more credit from our point of view," NAACP chief lobbyist Clarence Mitchell said of Dirksen’s work.

Though the GOP’s presidential standard bearer that fall, Sen. Barry Goldwater, voted against the bill, 27 of 33 Republicans joined northern Democrats in supporting the measure and shared the victory with the president they’d oppose in the fall.

"When your country’s in trouble, what difference does it make whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican? You do what you can to meet the problem," Dirksen told one interviewer days before the bill was signed on July 2, 1964.

The work that went into the Civil Rights Act of 1964 set the stage for many of the advances in equity that followed: voting rights, fair housing, equal participation in sports, accommodations for those with disabilities and much more.

That path toward greater equity is one our country is still working to navigate, and more progress is always possible when lawmakers place the good of the nation over partisan advantage in the next election.

Chris Kaergard is historian at the Dirksen Congressional Center, the Pekin-based archive that holds the papers and correspondence of Sen. Everett M. Dirksen, who died in 1969, and many other downstate Illinois lawmakers.

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