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University Daily Kansan
Thursday, Feb. 20, 1964
Southern Die-Hards Blamed For Strong Civil Rights Bill
Rv United Press International
By Charles
One day last summer a Southern congressman and a reporter were chatting about the civil rights bill President John F. Kennedy had just sent to Congress.
The congressman had some bitter things to say, not about the president who had just offered the toughest civil rights bill of the century, but about the politicians of his own state and region.
The congressman, who cannot be quoted by name, blamed diehard segregationists for forcing Kennedy to put forward a strong civil rights bill. That same sentiment was expressed privately by more than one Southern lawmaker during the violent summer of 1963. Publicly, of course, the Southerners said the bill was bad and they would do their best to beat it.
BUT THE 106 house members from the 11 states of the old confederacy knew they were facing their third civil rights defeat in seven years. And some of them felt that die-hard Southern officials had destroyed the best Southern argument against civil rights legislation with their handling of school integration and racial demonstrations.
Whatever their personal feelings about the race issue, Southern congressmen seldom had used white supremacy as an argument against civil rights in Washington. Instead, they had appealed to the majority Northerners—especially conservative Republicans—to let the South solve its own problems. And they held up examples of inter-racial cooperation and progress to show it could be done.
But after the racial violence at Birmingham and Jackson, Miss. in 1962 and 1963, it was the advocates of strong civil rights legislation who were waving examples.
Faced with racial turbulence in Northern cities as well, this group said the incidents only proved the argument that civil rights was a national problem that needed federal action. In this atmosphere, the traditional Southern self-improvement argument could not hold an audience.
SOUTHERNERS HAD TO fall back on another argument. They charged that the civil rights bill
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was no more than a power grab by federal officials, with Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy the most frequently named culprit. And they argued that the bill was a vehicle to get John Kennedy and big city liberals re-elected.
Whatever responsive chord these arguments might, have struck with conservative, small town Republicans was drowned out by several louder noises. The first was continuation of Negro protests, and the Southerners offered no way to stop them short of the fire hoses and police dogs.
But the final blow to Dixie hopes for stemming the tide was administered by a Southernner—President Johnson. The man whom Southern Democrats backed to the hilt for the 1960 presidential nomination embraced the Kennedy civil rights bill as an article of faith.
The second was the murder of Kennedy, which put the damper on all political strafing and made direct attacks on the late president's brother indelicate.
KENNEDY'S DEATH and Johnson's adoption of civil rights as the number one item of unfinished public business threw Southerners back to their last trenches. They had to tread softly for fear of arousing indignation in a period of national mourning. That could lead to a stampede for civil rights in which Southerners would have no chance at all to weaken, much less defeat, the bill.
So they made a deal with the House leaders of both parties who were pushing for the bill. The
Southerners agreed to refrain from using every available obstacle to slow down consideration of the bill and to keep debate on it legalistic and temperate. In return, the leadership promised the Southerners all the time they wanted to make their arguments against the bill and offer amendments.
Both sides kept to the spirit, if not the letter of the agreement. The Northern Democratic and Republican bloc supporting the bill gave the Southernners nine full days to argue against the bill and try to change it. No attempt was made to cut off debate until the last day.
The Southerners, in turn, used no deliberate delaying tactics, kept their arguments moderate and offered legitimate, serious amendments. Again, some rancorous debate and some frivolous amendments cropped up in the last day, by but that time the urge to fight was gone on both sides.
Kep. Spark M. Matsunaga, D-Hawaii, the only Japanese-American in the House, summed up the feeling of the winners for the losers with these words:
"Throughout this debate you have fought a losing battle but you have fought gallantly and you have fought clean; and if this be any consolation at all, let me say that the whole world loves a gallant man and a clean fighter.
"And I might add that you all have won my love and admiration but not my vote. Why not? Because you are trying to climb to the past and perpetuate a condition that is not right."
Interviews Scheduled
Interviews for staff positions for the Spring Concert will be held at 6:30 p.m. tonight in the Pan-American Room at the Student Union.
The interviews will be made by the SUA for the positions of general chairman and for publicity, ticket, and arrangement chairmen.
I-Club Plans Games
Bingo, a simulated "Beat-the-Clock" session, and other games will be part of the International Club's "Games Night" starting 7:30 p.m., Saturday, in the Big Eight Room of the Kansas Union.
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