The bill of the century : the epic battle for the Civil Rights Act / Clay Risen.
2014
KF4749 .R57 2014 (Mapit)
Available at General Collection
Items
Details
Title
The bill of the century : the epic battle for the Civil Rights Act / Clay Risen.
Author
Risen, Clay, author.
Edition
First U.S. Edition.
ISBN
9781608198245 hardcover
1608198243 hardcover
1608198243 hardcover
Published
New York, NY : Bloomsbury Press, 2014.
Language
English
Description
308 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm
Call Number
KF4749 .R57 2014
Dewey Decimal Classification
342.7308/5
Summary
Offers a full account of the complex battle to get the Civil Rights bill passed.
"The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the single most important piece of legislation passed by Congress in American history. This one law so dramatically altered American society that, looking back, it seems preordained--as Everett Dirksen, the GOP leader in the Senate and a key supporter of the bill, said, "no force is more powerful than an idea whose time has come." But there was nothing predestined about the victory: a phalanx of powerful senators, pledging to "fight to the death" for segregation, launched the longest filibuster in American history to defeat it. The bill's passage has often been credited to the political leadership of President Lyndon Johnson, or the moral force of Martin Luther King. Yet as Clay Risen shows, the battle for the Civil Rights Act was a story much bigger than those two men. It was a broad, epic struggle, a sweeping tale of unceasing grassroots activism, ringing speeches, backroom deal-making and finally, hand-to-hand legislative combat. The larger-than-life cast of characters ranges from Senate lions like Mike Mansfield and Strom Thurmond to NAACP lobbyist Clarence Mitchell, called "the 101st senator" for his Capitol Hill clout, and industrialist J. Irwin Miller, who helped mobilize a powerful religious coalition for the bill. The "idea whose time had come" would never have arrived without pressure from the streets and shrewd leadership in Congress--all captured in Risen's vivid narrative. This critical turning point in American history has never been thoroughly explored in a full-length account. Now, New York Times editor and acclaimed author Clay Risen delivers the full story, in all its complexity and drama"-- Provided by publisher.
"The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the single most important piece of legislation passed by Congress in American history. This one law so dramatically altered American society that, looking back, it seems preordained--as Everett Dirksen, the GOP leader in the Senate and a key supporter of the bill, said, "no force is more powerful than an idea whose time has come." But there was nothing predestined about the victory: a phalanx of powerful senators, pledging to "fight to the death" for segregation, launched the longest filibuster in American history to defeat it. The bill's passage has often been credited to the political leadership of President Lyndon Johnson, or the moral force of Martin Luther King. Yet as Clay Risen shows, the battle for the Civil Rights Act was a story much bigger than those two men. It was a broad, epic struggle, a sweeping tale of unceasing grassroots activism, ringing speeches, backroom deal-making and finally, hand-to-hand legislative combat. The larger-than-life cast of characters ranges from Senate lions like Mike Mansfield and Strom Thurmond to NAACP lobbyist Clarence Mitchell, called "the 101st senator" for his Capitol Hill clout, and industrialist J. Irwin Miller, who helped mobilize a powerful religious coalition for the bill. The "idea whose time had come" would never have arrived without pressure from the streets and shrewd leadership in Congress--all captured in Risen's vivid narrative. This critical turning point in American history has never been thoroughly explored in a full-length account. Now, New York Times editor and acclaimed author Clay Risen delivers the full story, in all its complexity and drama"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages [261]-296) and index.
Linked Resources
Cover image
Record Appears in
On-Campus Resources > Books
All Resources
All Resources
Table of Contents
Bad beginnings to a big year
"A national movement to enforce national laws"
An idea becomes a bill
The October crisis
"Let us continue"
A battle is lost
The South takes its stand
Breaking the filibuster
A bill becomes law.
"A national movement to enforce national laws"
An idea becomes a bill
The October crisis
"Let us continue"
A battle is lost
The South takes its stand
Breaking the filibuster
A bill becomes law.