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Originally posted by rogue06
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Thanks in large to the overwhelming support of Republicans in the House and Senate voting for it, as well as the Voting Rights Act while the Democrat vote was fractured.
As for the president who signed it.
LBJ. Lyndon Baines Johnson
While LBJ was being praised by liberals for his appointment of Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court, behind closed doors LBJ's cynical brand of "identity politics" became clear. According to presidential historian Robert Dallek, while talking to a staff member (someone he didn't need support from) who wondered why he had nominated Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court rather than a black judge less identified with the civil rights cause, Johnson explained, "Son, when I appoint a n-word to the court, I want everyone to know he's a n-word."
In 1967 when MLK Jr. spoke out against the Vietnam war, Johnson called him a "G-d d-mn n-word preacher."
He was Senate Majority Leader when President Eisenhower proposed both a Civil Rights Bill and Voting Rights Bill and sent in the 82nd Airborne to Little Rock to make the Democrat Governor, Orval Faubus, integrate public schools. It was the LBJ led Senate that fought tooth and nail against those bills.
Prior to this LBJ is notoriously quoted as having said,
And in response to President Truman's civil rights efforts LBJ described them as "a farce and a sham -- an effort to set up a police state in the guise of liberty. I am opposed to that program. I have voted against the so-called poll tax repeal bill ... I have voted against the so-called anti-lynching bill."
LBJ biographer Robert A. Caro notes that prior to 1957, Johnson "had never supported civil rights legislation -- any civil rights legislation."
After 1957 LBJ came to the realization that the South could not keep blacks down forever and that should the Republicans be successful in pursuing the passage of Civil Rights and Voting Rights, the Democrats would likely lose the black vote forever.
In his Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson Caro quotes Johnson:
And after passage of the Civil Rights Act, according to Ronald Kessler's book, Inside The White House LBJ boasted to two governors on Air Force One "I'll have those n-word voting Democratic for the next 200 years." He would also describe the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as that "n-word bill."
His private behavior toward blacks was notoriously appalling. Robert Parker, LBJ's longtime black limousine chauffeur, relates how LBJ blasted him daily with a onslaught of racist slurs. IIRC, he wrote in his memoirs about how LBJ refused to call him by his given name, and would insist on calling him "boy" or "n-word" or variant of.
As for the president who signed it.
LBJ. Lyndon Baines Johnson
While LBJ was being praised by liberals for his appointment of Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court, behind closed doors LBJ's cynical brand of "identity politics" became clear. According to presidential historian Robert Dallek, while talking to a staff member (someone he didn't need support from) who wondered why he had nominated Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court rather than a black judge less identified with the civil rights cause, Johnson explained, "Son, when I appoint a n-word to the court, I want everyone to know he's a n-word."
In 1967 when MLK Jr. spoke out against the Vietnam war, Johnson called him a "G-d d-mn n-word preacher."
He was Senate Majority Leader when President Eisenhower proposed both a Civil Rights Bill and Voting Rights Bill and sent in the 82nd Airborne to Little Rock to make the Democrat Governor, Orval Faubus, integrate public schools. It was the LBJ led Senate that fought tooth and nail against those bills.
Prior to this LBJ is notoriously quoted as having said,
"This civil rights program about which you have heard so much is a farce and a sham--an effort to set up a police state in the guise of liberty. I am opposed to that program. I fought it in the Congress. It is the province of the state to run its own elections. I am opposed to the anti-lynching bill because the Federal Government has no business enacting a law against one kind of murder than another...(And) if a man can tell you who you must hire, he can tell you who not to employ. I have met this head on."
And in response to President Truman's civil rights efforts LBJ described them as "a farce and a sham -- an effort to set up a police state in the guise of liberty. I am opposed to that program. I have voted against the so-called poll tax repeal bill ... I have voted against the so-called anti-lynching bill."
LBJ biographer Robert A. Caro notes that prior to 1957, Johnson "had never supported civil rights legislation -- any civil rights legislation."
After 1957 LBJ came to the realization that the South could not keep blacks down forever and that should the Republicans be successful in pursuing the passage of Civil Rights and Voting Rights, the Democrats would likely lose the black vote forever.
In his Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson Caro quotes Johnson:
"These Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they've got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we've got to do something about this, we've got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. For if we don't move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there'll be no way of stopping them, we'll lose the filibuster and there'll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It'll be Reconstruction all over again"
And after passage of the Civil Rights Act, according to Ronald Kessler's book, Inside The White House LBJ boasted to two governors on Air Force One "I'll have those n-word voting Democratic for the next 200 years." He would also describe the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as that "n-word bill."
His private behavior toward blacks was notoriously appalling. Robert Parker, LBJ's longtime black limousine chauffeur, relates how LBJ blasted him daily with a onslaught of racist slurs. IIRC, he wrote in his memoirs about how LBJ refused to call him by his given name, and would insist on calling him "boy" or "n-word" or variant of.
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