Moment of Victory

Since 1846, when the U.S. Senate wrangled for two months over the Oregon resolution (which led to a treaty defining U.S.-British jurisdiction in the Pacific Northwest), no other debate ever made a bigger demand on Senate time and vocal cords. The Senate's civil rights debate began last Feb. 15 and ended, 53 days later, last week. In a swift vote, powered by an overwhelming, 71-10-18 majority, the Senate passed the 1960 civil rights bill and sent it back to the House for, hopefully, quick agreement by a floor vote. When that happens, the civil rights bill, anchored with a solid voting-rights guarantee for the South's Negroes, will be on the books.

The moment of victory was almost anticlimactic. There was no battering-ram cloture vote to beat Southern filibusters into silence (although the Southern minority of 18 included the chairmen of nine powerful Senate committees). The Senate galleries were virtually empty; not a cheer rang through the chamber. But, in a sense, the lack of dramatics was a tribute to superb legislative technique. Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson and Republican Leader Everett Dirksen had allowed plenty of time for Northern liberals and Southern diehards to talk themselves out of election-year invective, then smoothly pushed through the House-approved (TIME, April 4) version of what was essentially the Administration's bill.

Bang & Whimper. The last hours of debate made the bill sound like a calamity. Shuddered Virginia's Democratic Harry Byrd: "I have never known such a determined effort to enact punitive legislation, most of which was unconstitutional and offensive to the South."

Illinois' Liberal Democrat Paul Douglas, in his distress over the supposed inadequacies of the bill, turned for solace to T. S. Eliot's The Hollow Men: "This is the way the world ends--Not with a bang but a whimper." And Pennsylvania's Democratic Joe Clark outdid all the melodrama by telling how he had surrendered his "sword" to the South's chief strategist, Richard Russell of Georgia. "Surely," cried Joe Clark, "the roles of Grant and Lee at Appomattox have been reversed." And then Clark wound up with a touching recital of four stanzas from The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Six-Part Boost. The fact is that the Senate-approved civil rights bill is a moderate device that draws new safeguards around Southern Negroes, and tries to move them toward equality by way of the ballot box. In its six parts, the bill:

P: Bolsters the authority of federal courts by making it a federal crime to obstruct any court orders "by threats or force." Originally, the Administration called for restricting this to court orders involving only school desegregation, but Southerners won their fight to expand the statute into all fields, e.g., labor disputes.

P:Cracks down on bombing terrorists by making it a federal crime to escape across state lines (or from the U.S.) to avoid prosecution or testifying in cases of burning or bombing of any building or vehicle. Also a federal crime: transporting explosives across state lines for the purpose of damaging property, or making bombing threats by mail, telephone or telegraph.

P: Helps federal investigators to spot voting frauds and discrimination by requiring that state election officials preserve for 22 months all registration and voting records in all elections for federal office.

P:Steps up the authority of the Civil Rights Commission by empowering it to administer oaths to witnesses at hearings.

P:Guarantees, through Department of Health, Education and Welfare action, continued education for servicemen's children in areas where desegregation orders result in school closings.

P:Enables disenfranchised Negroes to geek redress through a voting-referee device enforced by a federal court. The Justice Department can go into federal court on behalf of a Negro who complains to a U.S. attorney that he has been refused his registration rights in local, state and federal elections. If the Negro's case is proved, the U.S. attorney can ask that the court determine whether a pattern of discrimination exists against Negroes in that area. If the court establishes this, the judge may appoint referees to hear applications from any other complaining Negroes. The referee may enroll any qualified Negro who can prove that he had tried to register and had been refused. In its original form, the voting-referee plan also established the right of referees to see that Negroes were allowed to vote and that their ballots were counted, but the Southerners won a point that struck out that provision.

The one area of agreement in the closing hours of the Senate's work last week lay in the bestowal of credit on the one man who did the most to steer the civil rights bill to victory. No less a Republican than Minority Leader Ev Dirksen rose in a warm salute to Democratic Leader Johnson. Said Dirksen, who ably led the Republican flank of the fight: ."It took no courage on my part. But for the majority leader, who devoted his skill and talent and conviction and courage to the task, it is a remarkable tribute."

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