Richard Russell thought JFK would have softened the '64 Civil Rights Act
Reading an interesting book titled "An Idea Whose Time Has Come" by Todd S. Purdum about the fight to get the Civil Rights Act, proposed by JFK in 1963 and passed under LBJ in 1964, the law of the land. The book seems to demonstrate that while they were concerned about Civil Rights JFK & Attorney General Robert Kennedy were more timid about the issue and that even as Vice-President, LBJ was much more vocal in trying to push the administration to action.
While the bill was being debated in the summer of 1964 (and what an effort to get a strong bill passed it was) Sen. Richard Russell (D-GA) the leader of the segregationist bloc in the Senate confided that he had no hopes of getting any major compromises on the bill from LBJ, though he believed the southerners could have gained major compromises from JFK. Instead, Russell admitted, "The jig is just about up." (pg. 265-266)
While the major Senators leading the Civil Rights effort were Hubert Humphrey (D-MN) & Thomas Kuchal (R-CA), the behind the scenes effort were coordinated by President Johnson who prodded Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, during a Southern filibuster, to keep the Senate in operation around the clock--rather than the gentleman's arrangement to end the days session at a decent hour (and then pick up the filibuster the next day from where it left off) because he was fearful that an around the clock filibuster would be dangerous to the health & durability of the aged southern segregationists. Well, that was what LBJ was banking on that the old geezers would not have the stamina to keep it up.
Following passage of THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964 LBJ wanted to sign the bill almost immediately and was also urged to do so by black leaders. But Attorney General Robert Kennedy urged LBJ to delay it until after the Fourth of July holiday weekend. "If it's signed today," The Attorney General warned, "we're going to have a rather difficult weekend, a holiday weekend...That Friday and Saturday, with the Fourth of July and firecrackers going off...with Negroes running all over the South figuring that they get the day off, that they're going to go into every hotel and motel and every restaurant...If it's possible to postpone it till Monday and sign it...I don't know whether it's gone so far that you feel it's necessary to sign it today." (LBJ Presidential Recordings quoted) To LBJ's credit he did sign the bill on July 2,1964--and by and large the holiday weekend passed peacefully.
