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Timeline: 1963
Information following this icon deals with
the social context.
This icon signals information about the legislative process.
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Highlights: |
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Setting
the Stage: January - April 1963 |
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January 9. The first session of the 88th Congress convened at Noon,
with Democrats in substantial command of both chambers. In the Senate,
Democrats held 67 seats to the Republicans' 33. House Democrats outnumbered
Republicans 259 to 176. |
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February 28. President John
F. Kennedy asked Congress for legislation to broaden existing laws
to protect African-Americans. He noted that "the harmful, wasteful
and wrongful results of racial discrimination and segregation still appear
in virtually every part of the Nation." The president's proposed
legislation, however, did not match his rhetoric. He asked for relatively
minor changes in voting rights law, modest assistance to school districts
attempting to desegregate voluntarily, and an extension of the commission
which studied civil rights matters. Kennedy realized that Congress was
not prepared to enact a stronger bill. The House Rules Committee, through
which virtually all legislation in that body passed, was chaired by Howard
Smith (D-VA), an ardent opponent of any civil rights bill. The Senate
had its own set of obstacles both in committee leadership and in the filibuster
rule which allowed a small group of senators to kill a bill simply by
talking it to death. |
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Politics constrained Kennedy
in other ways, too. He needed the votes of southern Democrats in Congress
to pass his other programs, and he could ill afford to anger them by pressing
for a civil rights bill. The young president would also need the support
of the south to win re-election in 1964. Finally, the president by his
nature was more interested in foreign policy issues and believed that
strong public support at home improved his ability to bargain in diplomacy.
A bold civil rights measure would jeopardize that public support, he believed.
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March 19. Senator Philip
A. Hart (D-MI) introduced S 1117 in the Senate. |
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April 3. Under the leadership of the Reverend Martin
Luther King Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,
African-Americans in Birmingham, Alabama, began daily demonstrations and
sit-ins to protest discrimination at lunch counters and in public facilities.
Over the next three weeks, the demonstrations resulted in the arrest of
400 protesters, including King. The Birmingham confrontation was the first
protracted demonstration to be carried live and nationwide on television.
According to historian James Patterson, "More than any event to that
time, it forced Americans to sit up and take notice." In the ten
weeks following Birmingham, there were 758 demonstrations in 75 cities
in the South resulting in more than 10,000 arrests. Newsweek published
a survey in July showing that 40 percent of African-Americans interviewed
had taken part in a civil rights protest. |
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April 4. Judiciary Committee Chairman Emanuel
Celler (D-NY) introduced the president's request (HR 5455) in the
House.
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The
Push for Action: May 1963 |
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May 2. Over 700 blacks, many of them children, were arrested while
taking part in a nonviolent demonstration in Birmingham.
One leader said the demonstrations would continue "until we run out
of children." |
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May 8. House Judiciary Subcommittee No. 5 presided over by Emanuel
Celler (D-NY), chairman of both the full committee and the subcommittee,
began hearings on civil rights proposals. In total, there were 22 days
of hearings between May 8 and August 2. |
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May 10. Five weeks of racial tension temporarily ended in Birmingham
with an agreement providing for partial and gradual desegregation of public
facilities. But in the 10 weeks following, there were 758 demonstrations
with 13,786 people arrested in 75 cities in the South alone. |
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The Birmingham chapter of the
civil rights struggle proved crucial in preparing the political and legislative
ground for action. Andrew Young, a principal assistant to King, made the
point forcefully twenty-five years later during a roundtable discussion
of the demonstrations. ". . . [M]ost of you kind of folk think that
bills are written by legislative assistants," Young remarked. "The
truth is that although I never wrote so much as a memo or made a speech
or took part in a consultation on the 1964 or 1965 Civil Rights Acts,
yet we were very consciously writing those bills. The demonstrations in
Birmingham were specifically designed as measures to educate the United
States on the dynamics of race relations and racial segregation." |
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May 12. President Kennedy sent 3,000 troops to positions near Birmingham
to keep peace.
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June
1963 |
Portrait Photograph, President John F.
Kennedy. White House. 7/11/1963
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June 5. President Kennedy invited Republican congressional leaders
to the White House to discuss civil rights legislation. |
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June 6. Republicans in the Senate announced a position statement on
civil rights legislation, a policy they would follow for the balance of
the year: |
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It is the consensus of the Senate Republican conference that:
"The Federal Government, including the legislative, executive,
and judicial branches, has a solemn duty to preserve the rights, privileges,
and immunities of citizens of the United States in conformity with the
Constitution, which makes every native-born and naturalized person a
citizen of the United States, as well as the State in which he resides.
Equality of rights and opportunities has not been fully achieved in
the long period since the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution
were adopted, and this inequality and lack of opportunity and the racial
tensions which they engender are out of character with the spirit of
a nation pledged to justice and freedom.
The Republican Members of the U.S. Senate, in this 88th Congress, reaffirm
and reassert the basic principles of the party with respect to civil
rights, and further affirm that the President, with the support of Congress,
consistent with its duties as defined in the Constitution, must protect
the rights of all U.S. citizens regardless of race, creed, color, or
national origin."
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June 11. After a dramatic confrontation at the "schoolhouse door,"
Alabama Governor George
C. Wallace, when faced by National Guard troops, stepped aside to
allow two blacks to enroll at the University of Alabama. |
Radio and Television Report to the American
People on Civil Rights
Link: Report |
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June 11. President Kennedy, in a nationally televised address,
issued a call for action. "We are confronted primarily with a moral
issue," he stated. . "The heart of the question," the president
reminded viewers, "is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal
rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow
Americans as we want to be treated." |
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June 12. Civil rights leader Medgar
Evers was shot and killed outside his home in Mississippi. |
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June 19. President Kennedy submitted a bill to guarantee blacks
access to public accommodations, allow the government to file suit to
desegregate schools, allow federal programs to be cut off in any area
where discrimination was practiced in their applications, strengthen existing
machinery to prevent employment discrimination by government contractors,
and establish a Community Relations Service to help local communities
resolve racial disputes. H.R. 7152 contained the following eleven sections,
or titles: |
Everett McKinley Dirksen Meeting with Republicans 63/6/19-1
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Title I: Voting Rights
Title II: Public Accommodations
Title III: Desegregation of Public Facilities
Title IV: Desegregation of Public Education
Title V: Civil Rights Commission
Title VI: Nondiscrimination in Federally Assisted Programs
Title VII: Equal Employment Opportunity
Title VIII: Registration and Voting Statistics
Title IX: Intervention and Removal of Cases
Title X: Community Relations Service
Title XI: Miscellaneous
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June 20. Emanuel
Celler introduced the president's bill in the House. Given the number
H.R. 7152, the proposal was referred to Judiciary where Celler assigned
it to Subcommittee No. 5, which he chaired. William
McCulloch, Republican from Piqua OH, was the ranking member. Civil
rights proponents and the White House intended for the House of Representatives
to act first on the proposed bill. The Senate would be the tougher sell,
and strategists hoped to build momentum to overcome the inevitable opposition
of southern senators who have the ability and will to kill the legislation
by filibuster. |
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June
26. Hearings before Subcommittee No. 5 began with testimony from Attorney
General Robert
F. Kennedy. |
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Examples of southern views [Congressional Quarterly Almanac, 1963:
344-46]:
Rep. Joe
D. Waggonner Jr. (D-LA) said "without apology" that
he believed "it is neither illegal nor immoral to prefer the
peaceful and orderly separation of the races, without discrimination
or rancor of any kind," and said "pure equality is Communism."
Rep. Albert
W. Watson (D-SC) said "The racial problem is preeminently
a Southern problem; in the South it can only be solved by Southern
people, both white and Negro. Legislation by an only slightly familiar
Federal Government can only inflame an already very difficult situation."
Lt. Gov. C.C. Aycock (D-LA) said the proposed bills "ignore the
civil rights and civil liberties of homeowners, businessmen, professional
men, and all persons other than the minorities who are sought to be
protected…. The central government just does not have the constitutional
authority to dictate to the individual citizen the persons with whom
he must associate or the manner in which he must use his property,
or what individuals he can or cannot serve in his place of business."
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July
1963 |
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July 1. The Senate Commerce Committee held 22 days of hearings
from July 1 to August 2 on S 1732, a bill incorporating the public accommodations
section of the administration's bill. |
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July 16. The Senate Judiciary Committee began hearings on President
Kennedy's bill. The hearings ended in September, but the committee did
not report a bill. |
Everett Dirksen kept over 12,500 pages of personal notes during
his career. This document records his impressions of pressure building
for civil rights legislation. Link:
Everett
M. Dirksen Papers, Notebooks, f. 205.
The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL
Link: "Rights" |
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July 18. The Gallup Poll posed the following question to a sample
of southerners: "Do you think the day will ever come in the South
when whites and Negroes will be going to the same schools, eating in the
same restaurants, and generally sharing the same public accommodations?
Eight-three percent responded, "Yes, will . . . ." Thirteen
percent said "No, will not." The rest were undecided. The same
question was asked in August 1957-only 45 percent responded "Yes."
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August
1963 |
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August 2. From the time House Subcommittee No. 5's hearings ended
on August 2 through most of September, administration officials, subcommittee
Democrats and Republicans, and the House Republican leadership negotiated
the bill's provisions. The problem was to write a bill that would be supported
on the House floor by a substantial number of Republicans, whose votes
would be needed in concert with northern Democrats in order to defeat
the southern Democrats (and non-southern conservatives who might support
them) in attempts to water down or kill parts of the bill. |
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August 18. African American James
Meredith received a degree from the University of Mississippi. |
Listen to Recordings of Martin Luther
King, Jr.'s Speeches
Link: Recordings |
In this EDSITEment lesson, students will learn about the life and work of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Students will listen to a brief biography, view photographs of the March on Washington, hear a portion of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and discuss what King’s words mean to them. Finally, they will create picture books about their own dreams of freedom for Americans today.
Link: Dr. King's Dream
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August 28. About 200,000 people walked peacefully in a "March
of Washington for Jobs and Freedom" to dramatize the fight for
civil rights legislation. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a moving
speech: "I have a dream that one day the nation will rise up and
live out the true meaning of its creed . . . all men are created equal."
The text of his speech may be found at http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/38.htm.
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September
1963 |
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September 10. Celler's subcommittee began markup. Markup is a process
by which a bill is read sentence-by-sentence by a clerk. As each section
is read, members can offer amendments to add, revise, or delete language.
Each amendment is discussed and voted on by a voice vote, a show of hands,
or a roll call. After all the sections have been considered, the bill
(as amended) is put to a final vote by the chairman. If this process occurs
in a subcommittee, the bill, if approved, goes to the full committee which,
again in closed session, can accept the subcommittee measure in its entirety,
completely reject it, amend it, or simply not act on it at all. In response
to Birmingham bombing on September 15, the subcommittee reverses course
and begins to strengthen the administration's bill. |
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September 11. Alabama Governor George
Wallace backed down and permitted integration of public schools after
President Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard. |
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September 15. Four young African-American girls were killed in a church
bombing in Birmingham. Twenty other youngsters were injured. Rioting
killed two more children. |
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September 25. House Subcommittee No. 5 tentatively approved a more
far-reaching civil rights measure than the administration had proposed.
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October
1963 |
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October 2. Subcommittee No. 5 reported the subcommittee-approved bill
(HR 7152) to the full Judiciary Committee. It was a vastly strengthened
bill and outraged the committee's Republicans who had been working on
a moderate compromise and felt betrayed. The problem now facing administration
leaders was how to modify the subcommittee bill in the full committee
and put it in a form that might be acceptable on the House floor, without
forcing civil rights proponents of either party to appear to be backing
down. |
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October 8. The new HR 7152 was formally presented to the full House
Judiciary Committee comprised of 35 diverse men, all lawyers. There were
21 Democrats and 14 Republicans. There were 17 liberals, 8 conservative
southerners, 9 moderate-to-conservative northerners, and I maverick. With
White House support, a process to moderate the bill began. |
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October 8. The Senate Commerce Committee ordered reported an amended
version of S 1732 barring discrimination based on race, color, or religion
in hotels and motels, theaters, motion picture houses, retail stores,
restaurants, lunchrooms or the like, where the clientele or goods sold
moved in interstate commerce "to a substantial degree." The
bill exempted owner-occupied private homes in which not more that five
rooms were for rent. |
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October 15-16. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy testified before
the full House Judiciary Committee and asked for modifications in the
subcommittee bill -- provisions that were either legally unwise or would
provoke unnecessary opposition to the bill. He was especially critical
of the wide scope of the public accommodations section and Title III,
which would have given the Justice Department almost unlimited powers
in filing suits to stop civil rights deprivations. |
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October 23. President Kennedy traveled to the Capitol to lobby the
House Judiciary Committee for a more moderate bill. |
Statement
by President John F. Kennedy following action on the civil rights
bill by the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Link: Statement |
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October 29. In a series of votes, the Judiciary Committee rejected
the subcommittee bill, substituted a new bipartisan version (HR 7152),
and ordered the bipartisan version reported to the House by a 23 to
11 vote. The bipartisan bill went beyond the administration's earlier
requests by authorizing Justice Department suits to desegregate public
facilities; by permitting the department to enter any civil rights suit
pending in federal court; by requiring (rather than exhorting) government
agencies to seek compliance with a nondiscrimination policy in federal
programs; by establishing an Equal Employment Opportunities Commission,
covering most companies and labor unions; by requiring the Census Bureau
to collect certain voting statistics by race; and by making reviewable
a federal court action remanding a civil rights case to a state court.
But the full committee also removed some of the most liberal provisions
of the subcommittee bill.
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November
1963 |
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November 20. Judiciary Committee chair Celler asked House Rules Committee
Chairman Howard
W. Smith (D-VA) to schedule an early hearing on a rule for floor debate
on HR 7152. But Smith, an opponent of civil rights legislation, showed
no signs of planning action. |
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November 22. John Kennedy assassinated. |
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November 27. President Lyndon
Johnson renewed the call for passage of a civil rights bill: "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 new president began intense lobbying
with Congress members and activists. Click here
to read the entire text. |
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November 27. A liberal member of the Rules Committee introduced
a resolution to dislodge the bill from Rules. Under House procedures,
it was then possible for Judiciary Committee Chairman Celler, on December
9, to file a petition to discharge the Rules Committee of further consideration
of the rule, and, in effect, bring the bill to the floor.
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December
1963 |
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December 9. A discharge
petition was filed, but it required the signatures of a majority --
218 in 1963 -- of the members of the House to dislodge the bill from Rules.
By December 24, when the House was ready to adjourn for the year, the
petition had acquired 173 signatures. |
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December 18. Rules Committee Chairman Smith relented and agreed to
schedule hearings on January 9 after Congress resumes. |
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December 30. The Senate adjourned at 2:51 p.m., ending the longest
session of Congress since the Korean War crisis of 1950.
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