President Commemorates 40th Anniversary of Civil Rights Act
Remarks by the President Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
The East Room
4:01 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for coming, and welcome to the White
House. I am so pleased you could join us to celebrate a great
anniversary of justice and equality in America.
I appreciate members of my Cabinet being here, and a lot of members
of my administration. I want to thank many of our distinguished guests
who have joined us today. I'm so pleased to see Dr. Dorothy Hite --
thank you so much for coming. (Applause.)
We've got two Lieutenant Governors, Michael Steele and Jennette
Bradley, with us. Thank you both for being here today. (Applause.)
Marc Morial -- where are you, Marc? He must be somewhere. There he
is. Thanks for coming. (Applause.) I didn't recognize you outside
the "Big Easy." (Laughter.)
Lou Sullivan is with us. I'm honored you're here, Lou. Thanks for
coming, sir. (Applause.) My friend, Bob Woodson, President of the
National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, is here. Thanks for
coming, glad you're here. (Applause.) Bill Coleman, former Secretary
of Transportation, I'm honored you're here. (Applause.) Thurgood
Marshall, Jr. is with us today. Thank you so much for being here.
Appreciate -- I'm honored you're here. (Applause.) It's pretty neat
to have a great father, isn't it? (Laughter and applause.)
I'm going to save one announcement for a little later, special
announcement. But I do want to recognize Jack Valenti, who was the
Special Assistant to President Lyndon Johnson. Jack, we're honored
you're here. Thank you for coming. (Applause.)
Forty years ago, in many parts of America, basic rights were
observed or denied based entirely on race. Offensive laws regulated
every detail of society: where you can get your hair cut, which
hospital ward you can be treated in, which park or library you could
visit. A person looking for a job or even a place to stay the night
could be turned away merely because the color of the skin. And that
person had very little recourse under federal law. Forty years ago
this week, that system of indignity and injustice was ended by the
Civil Rights Act signed into law in this very room. (Applause.)
As of July the 2nd, 1964, no longer could weary travelers be denied
a room in a hotel or a table at a restaurant. No longer could any
American be forced to drink from a separate water fountain or sit at
the back of a bus just because of their race. All discrimination did
not end that day, but from that day forward, America has been a better
and fairer country.
Today we have here on display, outside this room, the first and
last pages of the Civil Rights Act, and one of the pens that Lyndon B.
Johnson used for the signature. That law was a long time in coming,
and before it arrived, the conscience of America had to be awakened.
That conscience was stirred by men and women who held sit-ins at lunch
counters, who rode the buses on Freedom Rides, who endured and overcame
the slurs and the fire hoses and the burning crosses. The conscience
of America was outraged by the ambush of Medgar Evers, by kidnappings
and terror bombings, and by the murder of four young girls in a church
on a Sunday. Our nation's conscience was moved by hundreds of
thousands who marched right here in the nation's capital to demand the
full promise of the Declaration and America's founding law.
President John F. Kennedy heard the voices of the Reverend Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., and others, and took up the challenge. Five
months before his death, the President said our nation was confronted
with a moral issue as old as the scriptures and as clear as the
American Constitution, and he called on Congress to pass civil rights
legislation.
After President Kennedy was assassinated, some wondered if the new
President, a son of the south, would carry forward the work of civil
rights. Very soon they would know the answer. During the Senate
debate on the Civil Rights Act, one of the longest debates in Senate
history, President Lyndon Johnson used all his powers of persuasion,
and they were considerable. (Laughter.) No one escaped the LBJ
treatment -- (laughter) -- not senators, not their staffs, not even
their families. "It is said that when President Johnson called
reluctant senators at home and a child answered, he would say, "Now you
tell your daddy that the President called." (Laughter.) "And he'd be
very proud to have your daddy on his side." (Laughter.)
It was more than the force of Johnson's personality that helped win
the day, it was the force of President Johnson's conviction on behalf
of a just cause. As a young man, he'd seen the ugly effects of
discrimination. As President, he was determined to fight it by law,
regardless of the political risk. One Southern senator warned him,
"It's going to cost you the election." He replied, "If that's the
price I've got to pay, I will pay it gladly."
Lyndon Johnson is known to history as the President who championed
and signed the Civil Rights Act. And we recognize and remember the
contributions of this strong Texan and great American. And we're
honored to have his daughter, Luci Baines Johnson, with us today.
We're honored you're here. Thanks for coming. I appreciate you
coming. (Applause.)
We also remember the legislators of both parties who worked
tirelessly to bring the bill to passage -- in particular, Senators Mike
Mansfield of Montana, Senator Edward Dirksen of Illinois, and Senator
Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota. When it mattered most, these
principled men rose to the responsibility of their time, and our nation
honors them today.
After the Civil Rights Act became law, the change was felt
immediately all across America. In 1964, Dale Long was a 12-year-old
boy living in Birmingham, Alabama. One day, before the law was passed,
Dale and his brother convinced their father to take them to a movie
where blacks had to enter through an alley and could only sit in the
upstairs balcony. "I could see the look of humiliation on my dad's
face," he remembers. A few months after the Civil Rights Act, the Long
brothers returned to that theater. As they remember it, they were with
a friend. "We went to see a James Bond movie," Dale says, and this
time they entered through the front door and sat where they pleased.
The indignity of Dale Long's first experience at that movie theater
seems like something that happened many lifetimes ago. Yet, such
experiences are within the living memory of millions of our citizens.
These past four decades in American life give witness to the power of
good laws to prevent injustice and encourage the finest qualities of
our national character.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gives all Americans another reason to
be proud of our country. The work of equality is not done because the
evil of bigotry is not finally defeated. Yet the laws of this nation
and the good heart of this nation are on the side of equality. And as
Dr. King reminded us, "We must not rest until the day when justice
rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."
I'm honored you all are here today. We'll have a reception on the
other side of this beautiful house. Thank you for coming. May God
continue to bless America. (Applause.)