To give credit where it is due, the sometimes villified LBJ got all of the cicil rights legislation through Congress.

Sterile recitation indeed. I lived through those years too, and I distinctly remember the Republicans of Utah standing firm against progress on Civil Rights at every single turn. How about you, Joe? Remember that?

I ACTUALLY REMEMBER it was DEMOCRATS standing firm against progress on civil rights,

and those knuckle dragging "progessives" had to be drag to modern times.


I remember it was progressive democrat Wilson that RE-SEGREGATED to military


I remember it was progressive democrat FDR kept it segregated during WW2, (and interned the japanese)

I remember it was republican eisenhower that desegregated the military


I remember it was progressive democrat JFK who supported racist GEORGE WALLACE,


I remember it was progressive democrat BYRD who was in the KKK during that time,


I remember it was progressive democrat STANGER, a racist and believer in eugenics, who created Planned Prenthood, to control minority and other undesirable populations.


I guess we just remember things differently.

You're seriously calling JFK, Byrd and Sanger (not "Stanger") progressives? Are you insane?

Fact is up until the 1960s Dixie absolutely refused to elect any Republicans since that was the party of Lincoln? But by 1950 or so many southern Democrats started calling themselves Dixiecrats? Those Dixiecrats are the ones who were wholly against civil rights. After LBJ (an actual progressive) signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 he turned to his aid and said "We have just lost the south for a generation". Immediately after that racist southern Democrats (like say Strom Thurmond) switched parties to the Republican party.

I suggest you take your revisionism elsewhere.

Truman, not Eisenhower integrated the military.

To "Oh Please" In fact I have no memory of the reaction of Utah Republicans, I lived in Southern California most of that time. It is true, however, that many states and many people of all parties had difficulty with the concept of equal rights for Blacks. How different Utah was is something I don't know. The idea of civil rights for Blacks was a huge uphill battle in all states and still hasn't ended. You might remember, for example, that George Wallace won a landslide victory in the Michigan Democrat primary in 1972.

As to the role of Republicans, it is clear that the 1964 Act couldn't have been passed without GOP help. First, it required their help to end the 57 day filibuster by the Southern Democrats. A key player in all this was Everett Dirksen, and widely recognized as such by Hubert Humphery (the major sponsor in the Senate) and President Johnson. In the Senate 87% of Republicans voted for the Bill and 69% of the Democrats. In the House, 80% of Republicans voted for passage while 63% of the Democrats supported the Bill.

Interestingly, just days after President Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Everett Dirksen placed Barry Goldwater's (who opposed the Bill) name into nomination for President at the GOP Convention at the San Francisco Cow Palace