The
Democratic Senate majority leader,
Lyndon B. Johnson of
Texas, who would play a vital role in the bill's passage in the Senate, realized that the bill and its journey through Congress could tear apart his party, as southern Democrats vehemently opposed civil rights, and its northern members were strongly in favor of them. Southern Democratic senators occupied chairs of numerous important committees because of their long
seniority. As, in the near-century between the end of Reconstruction and the 1960s, white Southerners voted solidly as a bloc for the Democrats, Southern Democrats in Congress rarely lost their seats in elections, ensuring that they had more seniority than Democratic members of Congress from other parts of the country. Johnson sent the bill to the
Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Democratic Senator
James Eastland of
Mississippi, who drastically altered the bill. Democratic Senator
Richard Russell Jr., of
Georgia had denounced the bill as an example of the federal government seeking to impose its laws on states. Johnson sought recognition from civil rights advocates for passing the bill as well as recognition from the anti-civil rights Democrats for weakening the bill so much as to make it toothless. As well as a general support for civil rights as
the party of Lincoln, Republicans saw that this could be an effective way to increase the number of
Black Republican voters as the blocking of the Bill by the Democrats in the
Southern Caucus would become obvious. They, like Johnson, also saw the potential for dividing the Democratic party's Northern and Southern wings. This meant that the (on this issue) liberal but hardball Republican operators like the
Vice President,
Richard Nixon, who had a constitutional right to chair the Senate took a great interest in the Bill. Conservative Republican Senators who were sympathetic to Southern arguments on
States rights were more likely to vote on a party basis. On the other hand, the Republicans were willing to quietly allow Democratic Southern obstruction if this meant that African-American and liberal voters would be more likely to see the culprits as Democrats.
Anderson–Aiken amendment A bipartisan group of Senators realized that Southerners would not allow passage of the act with Title III, which authorized the US Attorney General to seek preventive relief in civil rights cases. Majority Leader Johnson convinced Senator
Clinton Anderson (D-NM) to introduce an amendment to strip out the enforcement provisions of Title III. Later President Eisenhower in answer to a direct question on Russell's charges distanced himself from the "exact language" of Title III. The vote on the amendment did not split purely along partisan or ideological lines; it was opposed by conservative
William Knowland (R-CA) and supported by liberal
Frank Church (D-ID). Alleged violators of civil rights injunctions are normally entitled to jury trials, with the exception of civil contempt actions. A jury trial amendment that included the guarantee of jury trials in civil contempt actions would, in the South, result in perpetrators of voter suppression being acquitted by an all-white jury, thus ensuring no resulted accomplishment to enfranchise blacks. There was also support from some unions, particularly the
Railroad brotherhoods and the
United Mine Workers of America who agreed that this would also stop injunctions in union cases. Their support was seen as a major reason why Senators in mining states such as West Virginia and midwestern Republican senators where the railroads were strong became less hostile to the amendment. Following the vote, many Republicans were visible in their bitterness, having failed in an opportunity to spearhead the cause of civil rights against a deceitful, partisan Democratic effort. According to Johnson biographer Robert A. Caro:
Filibuster Then-Democratic Senator
Strom Thurmond of
South Carolina, an ardent
segregationist, sustained the longest one-person
filibuster in history in an attempt to keep the bill from becoming law. His one-man filibuster lasted 24 hours and 18 minutes; he began with readings of every
US state's
election laws in alphabetical order. He later read from the
Declaration of Independence, the
Bill of Rights, and
George Washington's Farewell Address. Thurmond pointed out that there was already a federal statute that prosecuted citizens who denied or intimidated voters at voting booths under a fine and/or imprisonment but that the bill then under consideration could legally deny trial by jury to those that continued to do so. Democratic Representative
Charles A. Boyle of
Illinois, a member of the powerful Appropriations Subcommittee of Defense, pushed the bill through the House of Representatives.
Final passage The bill passed 285–126 in the
House of Representatives with a majority of both parties' support (Republicans 167–19, Democrats 118–107). It then passed 72–18 in the Senate, again with a majority of both parties (Republicans 43–0, Democrats 29–18). Despite large opposition from Southern Democrats, the Democratic U.S. Senators from Tennessee and Texas would support the law. President Eisenhower signed the bill on September 9, 1957. The act established both the
Commission on Civil Rights and the office of
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. Subsequently, on December 9, 1957, the
Civil Rights Division was established within the
Justice Department by order of US Attorney General
William P. Rogers, giving the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights a distinct division to command. Previously, civil rights lawyers had enforced Reconstruction-era civil rights laws from within the Department's
Criminal Division. == Legislative breakdown ==