Today In History....

1964 President Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Wikipedia has a readable description, here. This legislation really prompts one to think of what leadership, in this case Lyndon Johnson's, is all about. He was the architect of this legislation and knew that it would cause problems for his own party, the Democrats.

Republican Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen pushed the bill through Congress. The bill divided both political parties and engendered a long-term change in the demographics of both. Johnson realized that supporting this bill would mean losing the South's overwhelming Democratic Party majority (which did happen, with some exceptions). Although they were a minority party in both houses of Congress, Republicans voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Act, enabling its passage.

For students of this era, it is important to note that despite discrimination being a very real and important problem, there were also concerns over the issue of states rights and the individual liberties that were being tested with this legislation. From the conservative think-tank Cato Institute...

Forty years ago, Congress responded to the moral urgency of ending Jim Crow and bringing blacks and other minorities into the American mainstream by enacting the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Since then, the primary justification for anti-discrimination laws has shifted from this relatively limited goal to an authoritarian agenda aimed at eliminating all forms of supposedly invidious discrimination. Such a goal cannot possibly be achieved - or even pursued - without grave consequences for civil liberties.

But the subsequent loss of liberties are the price that we have to pay for the original sin of discriminating against our friends and brothers. The pursuit of liberty is not a lost cause, and like our fore-fathers, we have to fight for it. And its worth fighting for. We can count every day our blessings.