On This Day in History: June 19

1964 Civil Rights Act

Subscribers can listen to the audio version of today’s post here.

It’s hard not to look at Republican senators in the U.S. and think What a bunch of assholes. But in 1964 a group of Democrat senators looked at the proposed Civil Rights Act and said we don’t fucking think so. 

--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: June 19, 1964--

The act, proclaiming discrimination based on race, religion, or gender is bad and you aren’t allowed to do that shit anymore, was JFK’s baby. And unlike with his pregnant mistresses that President Kennedy pressured to get abortions, this one did eventually come to term. He proposed it in June 1963 after that spring’s “Birmingham Campaign” led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. resulted in a surge of civil rights protests across the Southern U.S. Then Lee Harvey Oswald—and no one fucking else—blew JFK’s brains out on November 22 of that year. 

Five days later his successor, LBJ, said hey Jack really wanted this thing I’m gonna push it through. The House of Representatives said yeah cool and passed it in February of 1964. But then it went to the Senate at the end of March, and there was fuckery. A geographically unsurprising “Southern Bloc” of 18 Democrat senators, and one Republican, said fuck this let’s talk this shit to death. 

Filibusters date back to Ancient Rome as a way of obstructing a bill’s passage via endless blah fucking blah. The filibuster was led by Democrat senator from Georgia and racist douchewaffle Richard Russell, who said, “We will resist to the bitter end any measure . . . to bring about social equality and intermingling.” 

So they cried like Brett Kavanaugh at a Senate hearing. For two months. Then a couple of Republican senators said hey here is a watered-down version of the bill how about that? And it swung enough Republicans over to join the Democrat senators who weren’t racist asswipes to get the majority needed to say to the filibusters oh Jesus Christ shut the fuck up. 

On June 19, 1964, the vote was called. Democrat Senator Clair Engle from California was near death from a brain tumor and couldn’t speak. But he showed up for the vote in a wheelchair and when his name was called, he pointed at his eye to signify an “Aye” vote. It passed 73–27. President Johnson signed it into law two weeks later. 

Of course, many in the South were pissed and they punished the Democrat party for it, beginning the transformation of those states into Republican strongholds. And just like with school de-segregation, there were no shortage of places saying “You’re not the boss of me” to the U.S. government, refusing to obey the law. Because racist shitbirds gonna shitbird.

Support keeping this daily column free and get access to subscriber only content:

Get the book On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down.