U.S. Senate

Fact check: Southern Dems held up 1964 Civil Rights Act, set filibuster record at 60 days

Rachael Riley

USA TODAY

A Delaware senator's vote was the deciding one in breaking a filibuster on the Civil Rights Act in 1964.

The claim: Democrats held the nation’s longest filibuster for 75 days to attempt to prevent the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

When senators want to put the brakes on legislation, they talk. And talk. And talk some more. That's called a filibuster.

Who holds the record for the longest filibuster? Recently a claim has made the rounds: "In 1964, on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Democrats held the longest filibuster in our nations history, 75 days. All trying to prevent the passing of one thing. The Civil Rights Act."

One Facebook user shared a post with the claim on social media on June 5. She did not respond when asked if she had any additional comments.

But that claim has been widely circulated, liked and shared by thousands of people.

Setup for a filibuster

The Senate’s website states that the “longest continuous debate in Senate history” was about the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Prior to passing the act, Southern congressmen signed the “Southern Manifesto” to resist racial integration by all “lawful means,” states the Library of Congress’ exhibit, “The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom.”

The Library of Congress website states the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights led to an attempt to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., left, of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and fellow civil rights leader Malcolm X, heading a new group known as Muslim Mosque, Inc., smile for photographers March 26, 1964, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. They shook hands after King announced plans for direct action protests if Southern senators filibuster against the civil rights bill.

The Senate site states President John F. Kennedy supported the act prior to his assassination and that President Lyndon B. Johnson encouraged Congress to pass the act in honor of Kennedy and to “end racial discrimination and segregation in public accommodations, public education, and federally assisted programs.”

Emanuel Celler, a New York Democrat, introduced the House’s version of a resolution on June 19, 1963, that would become the Civil Rights Act, according to an article in Smithsonian Magazine.

The House passed the bill on Feb. 10, 1964. It moved to the Senate on Feb. 26, 1964, and was placed on the Senate’s Judiciary Committee’s calendar, the Senate’s website states. The committee was chaired by civil rights opponent James Eastland of Mississippi.

Opposition from the South

According to Senate history, the issue was moved for consideration on March 9, 1964, when “Southern senators launched a filibuster against the bill,” with debates lasting 60 days.

“Since Southern Democrats opposed the legislation, votes from a substantial number of senators in the Republican minority would be needed to end the filibuster,” the site states.

The Library of Congress states that after Kennedy died, Johnson enlisted Sens. Hubert Humphrey, a Democrat from Minnesota, and Everett Dirksen, a Republican from Illinois, along with Celler and Rep. William McCulloch, a Republican from Ohio, “to secure the bill’s passage.”

More:Fact check: Civil rights-era images weren't intentionally made black and white

Johnson also asked for support from Sen. Richard Russell Jr., a Georgia Democrat who was the leader of the Southern Democrats in Congress who opposed the bill “to the very end,” the Library of Congress website states.

Humphrey worked with Dirksen to redraft the bill and make it “more acceptable to Republicans,’’ the Senate website states.

After senators voted to end the debate, the bill passed on June 19, 1964. According to the Senate site, the continuous debate lasted 60 days.

More:Supreme Court hands victory to LGBTQ workers under Civil Rights Act Title VII provision

Vote down ideological lines

A June 20, 1964, New York Daily News article about the passage said 46 Democrats and 27 Republicans were in favor of the bill, while 21 Democrats, all from Southern or border states, opposed it along with six Republicans.

In an interview with Terry Gross’s "Fresh Air" for National Public Radio, author Todd Purdum said Congressman Bill McCulloch was a descendent of pre-Civil War abolitionists and supported civil rights.

By 1963, Purdum said, McCulloch was a ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee who asked the Kennedy administration to support the bill, saying he had support from the House Republican leaders.

Once the bill reached the Senate, Purdum described Southern Democrats as leading filibuster efforts, including Sens. Russell Long of Louisiana, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, Herman Talmadge of Georgia, John McClellan of Arkansas and Richard Russell of Georgia.

Purdum said the Southerners made their stand so their constituents would know the bill “won fair and square.”

The bill was signed into law on July 2, 1964.

Our ruling: Partly false

It is true that the Democrats hold the record for the longest filibuster. But there are a couple of aspects of the exact claim that are false or misleading. It wasn't 75 days long; it lasted only 60 days. And there should be a distinction made in exactly who was blocking the bill. The majority of Democrats who opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act were from Southern states; some Democrats in non-Southern states did support the bill.

Our fact-check sources:

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