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House Committee on the Judiciary, in approving a bipartisan civil
rights bill today, has significantly improved the prospects for
enactment of effective civil rights legislation in Congress this
year. The bill is a comprehensive and fair bill.
It will provide effective legal remedies for
racial discrimination in voting, education, public accommodations,
employment, and Federal programs. It will provide the basis for
men of good will in every city in our land to work together to
resolve their racial problems within a framework of law and justice.
The bill must now pass through the House Rules
Committee, be approved by the House, then by the Senate. I am
hopeful this can be done as rapidly as possible.
From the very beginning, enactment of an effective
civil rights bill has required that sectional and political differences
be set aside in the interest of meeting an urgent national crisis.
The action by the Committee today reflects this kind of leadership
by the Speaker of the House, John McCormack, House Minority Leader,
Charles Halleck, the Committee Chairman, Emanuel Celler, and the
ranking Minority Member, William McCulloch.
Source: Public Papers of the President,
John F. Kennedy, 1963, p. 820.
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John
F. Kennedy
