White House Press release, February 28, 1963
President John F. Kennedy announced his plan for civil rights legislation with this message to Congress. [Everett M. Dirksen Papers. Working Papers, f. 241. The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL]

Thomas Dodd to Everett Dirksen, May 23, 1963
Senator Dodd's letter informs the Senate Minority Leader of civil rights legislation that Dodd and Senator John Sherman Cooper plan to introduce. [Everett M. Dirksen Papers. Working Papers, f. 236. The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL]

Excerpt from E. Dirksen Notebook, ca. July 1963
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. [Everett M. Dirksen Papers. Notebooks, f. 205. The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL]

Civil Rights Legislation, January 22, 1964
Senator Dirksen records his views on civil rights bills early in 1964 in this document which his staff kept on hand to help answer constituent requests for his views. [Everett M. Dirksen Papers. Alpha File 1964, Civil Rights. The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL]

H.R. 7152, February 10, 1964
The first page of a 56-page bill incorporating the civil rights legislation for the 88th Congress. This bill was at the center of the legislative action in 1964. [Everett M. Dirksen Papers. Working Papers, f. 243. The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL]

Congressional Record, February 17, 1964
The Congressional Record documents the legislative debate and action in Congress. In this speech on the Senate floor, Dirksen talks about the pressure to act on civil rights. [Everett M. Dirksen Papers. Working Papers, f. 253. The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL]
(For a transcript of this document, click here.)

Bruce Butterfield to Dirksen, February 24, 1964
The Butterfield letter on behalf of the Committee of 100 Businessmen is an example of how outside interests attempt to influence legislation. [Everett M. Dirksen Papers. Working Papers, f. 253. The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL]
(For a transcript of this document, click here.)

Legislative History of H.R. 7152, ca. March 1964
These pages introduced a notebook prepared by Everett Dirksen's Senate staff as a reference on the primary civil rights bill in 1964. [Everett M. Dirksen Papers. Working Papers, f. 244. The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL]

Petition, April 1964
Another example of how constituents expressed their views. Over 2,500 people signed this petition. [Everett M. Dirksen Papers. Alpha 1964, Civil Rights. The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL]

Backers of Rights Bill Map a Sudden Switch in Strategy, June 1964
Everett Dirksen's clippings file contains this wire service story about the unfolding debate on the civil rights bill. [Everett M. Dirksen Papers. Clippings, f. 341. The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL]

An Idea Whose Time Has Come, June 1964
As Dirksen began to consider ending the Senate debate on the civil rights bill, he composed the language he would use to persuade his colleagues to vote with him. This document, part of his personal notes, later served as the basis for his June 10 speech calling for cloture. [Everett M. Dirksen Papers. Notebooks, f. 200. The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL] See Senator Dirksen on the Civil Rights Bill.

Thanks to Dirksen, June 5, 1964
An editorial attributing to Dirksen the key role in resolving the civil rights debate in the Senate. [Everett M. Dirksen Papers. Clippings, f. 342. The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL]

Civil Rights, June 10, 1964
This speech, delivered by Dirksen on the floor of the Senate, was widely credited with ending the stalemate in the Senate and permitting a vote on what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Dirksen typed it himself, on a large-font typewriter, and marked a few passage by hand. The entire speech runs over a dozen pages. [Everett M. Dirksen Papers. Remarks and Releases, June 10, 1964. The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL]

Roy Wilkins to Dirksen, June 12, 1964
Although Dirksen did not generally enjoy support from Black leaders during the civil rights debate, Roy Wilkins, on behalf of the NAACP, expressed his appreciation in this letter after the Senate vote to end debate and proceed with a vote on the bill. [Everett M. Dirksen Papers. Working Papers, f. 259. The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL]

Form letters on civil rights and cloture
Senator Dirksen received tens of thousands of letters from people all over the country during the debate on civil rights. These are two model letters his staff used to respond to expressions of opinions and requests for information. [Everett M. Dirksen Papers. Chicago Office, f. 2149. The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL]

Senator Byrd's Account of the Filibuster of 1964 Civil Rights Legislation

Senator Everett M. Dirksen's Speech to the Senate, The Civil Rights Bill, June 10, 1964
In order to end months of delay and bring the Civil Rights Bill to a vote in the Senate, the Senate leaders opted to use the process known as cloture to force an end to the delay and establish a limit on Senate debate of the bill. Even though the cloture procedure was well established in Senate rules, it was rarely used and rarely successful. In this landmark Senate speech, Senator Dirksen, the Minority Leader of the Senate, presented his arguments in favor of the Civil Rights bill and in favor of the Senate's need to invoke cloture in order to get on with the vote. Quoting the French writer Victor Hugo, Senator Dirksen captured the essence of the moment when he said: "Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come."