New Deal Coalition Retained: A Sixth Party System Wikibox Timeline
I don't think he's talking about that. The Sixth Party System is the political era stretching from the 1960's to anywhere from the 1990's to now.
Yes, that's what I'm going for
I don't know how you're going to make the 5th system different without replicating the 6th syxtem- I mean, there's not much political liberty within a two-party autocracy. But let's wait and see.
As for Mecham, there has to be someone to root against
I just hope giving power to disgusting people does not become a trend.
Mecham is a freshman senator hated by most in the caucus. He has very little power
The Civil Rights Act
As the year of 1963 dawned, the people of the United States had awoken to an unimaginable horror. As morning services were winding down, a bomb detonated at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The parishioners were nearly all African-American, and among the eleven dead were four small girls whose pictures made national headlines barely a day following the crime.
White House audio transcript, February 11th 1963
Meeting of Senior Cabinet.
Nixon: [audible sighing] Seeing those tiny coffins, the lives of four young kids denied a chance at life. Shit.
[Silence]
Finch: Funerals of children are tough on all of us Mr. President, especially this one.
Bunche: I had a conversation with Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP leadership yesterday. They and Doctor King expect something done because of this.
Arends: I agree, the status quo cannot be sustained. But with Brown and CRVA still being resisted there’s only so much capital we have to affect real change?
Nixon: Four kids and seven others are dead Leslie, now’s not the time to hand out a fucking spanking! [muttered profanities] Jesus, it’s time we finish off the segregationist assholes once and for all.
Bush: It won’t be easy, far from it. Thurmond, Gore, that puissant slug Mecham, and the others won’t take this lying down. And the scope of the bill is an issue as well.
Nixon: Agreed Prescott, the restrained bills from before aren’t enough. The courts are toothless as it is becoming quite clear and any negro voting we see with CRVA is meaningless if the fuckers detonate a bomb or take up arms whenever a young black boy even talks to a white girl. Let along what happened too… uh… [mumbling]
Dulles: Kennard, Mr. President. Clyde Kennard.
Nixon: Right, thank you Alan. [chuckles dryly] Ike was right about the stress getting to you sometimes. Anyway, something has to be done. Something big, something that’ll hit the bastards right in the stomach.
Chotiner: What are you suggesting sir?
[Silence]
Nixon: Get Mansfield and Dirksen up here. I think it’s time for a chat. Oh, and Bob.
Finch: Yes Mr. President?
Nixon: Schedule an address soon, on all major networks television and radio. Time for a line in the sand.
(end transcript)
Meeting of Senior Cabinet.
Nixon: [audible sighing] Seeing those tiny coffins, the lives of four young kids denied a chance at life. Shit.
[Silence]
Finch: Funerals of children are tough on all of us Mr. President, especially this one.
Bunche: I had a conversation with Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP leadership yesterday. They and Doctor King expect something done because of this.
Arends: I agree, the status quo cannot be sustained. But with Brown and CRVA still being resisted there’s only so much capital we have to affect real change?
Nixon: Four kids and seven others are dead Leslie, now’s not the time to hand out a fucking spanking! [muttered profanities] Jesus, it’s time we finish off the segregationist assholes once and for all.
Bush: It won’t be easy, far from it. Thurmond, Gore, that puissant slug Mecham, and the others won’t take this lying down. And the scope of the bill is an issue as well.
Nixon: Agreed Prescott, the restrained bills from before aren’t enough. The courts are toothless as it is becoming quite clear and any negro voting we see with CRVA is meaningless if the fuckers detonate a bomb or take up arms whenever a young black boy even talks to a white girl. Let along what happened too… uh… [mumbling]
Dulles: Kennard, Mr. President. Clyde Kennard.
Nixon: Right, thank you Alan. [chuckles dryly] Ike was right about the stress getting to you sometimes. Anyway, something has to be done. Something big, something that’ll hit the bastards right in the stomach.
Chotiner: What are you suggesting sir?
[Silence]
Nixon: Get Mansfield and Dirksen up here. I think it’s time for a chat. Oh, and Bob.
Finch: Yes Mr. President?
Nixon: Schedule an address soon, on all major networks television and radio. Time for a line in the sand.
(end transcript)
In an address to the nation on February 14th, President Nixon did not disappoint. Stating that the United States had a “Moral duty to ensure that every man, woman, and child can live out their inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” Nixon directed that he and Vice President Rockefeller would seek a broad solution on ending official discrimination against racial minorities with congressional leadership.
Congress, led by Senate Majority Leader Michael Mansfield, Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen, Senate Majority Whip John F. Kennedy, and Senate Minority Whip Thomas Kuchel were united to bring what was to become the Civil Rights Act of 1963 to a vote by the end of the summer of the year. However, there were major hurdles. The Senate Committee that would have taken up the bill was chaired by the Southern Democrat James Eastland (D-MS) – normally a conservative ally with the President but firmly anti-civil rights. The bill was yanked and introduced by discharge petition in the House but what remained ways a strong phalanx of opposition from southern Democrats far-right Republicans such as Senator Evan Mecham and Representative John Ashbrook.
Controlling most Committees due to their seniority, the southern block possessed formidable pull in their favor. Teaming up with Democrat partisans in the House and Senate that were not eager to see the Nixon Administration win a legislative victory (including a bitter Lyndon Johnson, who worked behind closed doors against the legislation), the cadre of senators launched a campaign of obstruction and delays that lasted for almost the entire summer.
These legislative standoffs were once again brought to the limelight by nearly half a million people brought on September 1st, 1963 to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in what would be called the March on Washington. Addressed personally by President Nixon (at the urging of Martin Luther King Jr. and Chief of Staff Finch despite opposition by many due to the possibility of losing southern Republican and moderate Democrat swing votes in the House), the most famous address was that of the civil rights leader himself:
“My prayer, said every morning with passion in my voice and tears in my eyes, is that all persons in this nation may be able to live up to its creed, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’”
This, plus several compromises made by the bipartisan leadership to moderate Democrats (mostly representing working class districts in the northeast or Midwest) and conservative Republicans (constitutionalists like John Ashbrook or southerners like Edward Gurney and Bill Brock), the Civil Rights Act passed the House of Representatives four days following the March on Washington – only ten Republicans voted against, while one hundred and fifty-three Democrats did. Now it was up to the Senate.
Senate rules required two-thirds of senators for a vote of cloture – to end debate and bring the bill for a vote – and the southern block was prepared to block it from happening. Senators Strom Thurmond, Albert Gore Sr, Robert Byrd, and the freshman firebrand Evan Mecham ran a running filibuster for over 72 hours total, the Arizona Republican breaking Thurmond’s previous record for a single speech with a 23 hour 44 minute rant where he discussed items such as family recipes and how to properly tend a home garden in the desert alongside Constitutional issues.
Driksen, Kuchel, and Mansfield performed a headcount while Mecham – a headache for the Republican leadership since he was sworn in – spoke. The bill’s backers were one vote shy of passage. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona.
Wasn't Pappy Gore one of the few Southerners not to sign the Southern Manifesto?
23 hours and forty-four minutes in one continuous speech, a record that still hasn't been broken to the present day ITTL.
Goldwater's main problem with the OTL CRA were the portions regarding bans on private discrimination, which are not included in the bill ITTL. That will be covered in a soon to be mini update
Huh. But even so, he wasn't as bad as assholes like Strom Thurmond and George Wallace. I can't really see him take the charge.
That's...not the best news. Looks like Nixon wasn't as steadfast as LBJ.
Without a Democratic President, there's less initiative for the Democrats to sign on to the CRA. Many just want to give a bloody nose to the Nixon Administration. So to get the votes Nixon, Mansfield, and Dirksen have to moderate the aspects somewhat to get moderate Ds and Rs from the Upper South.
The private discrimination bans will be passed, just not part of this bill ITTL.
That's very true. Goldwater was a supporter of civil rights overall, just had some problems with this particular act.
The voting rights act ITTL was passed in 1958 as the Civil Rights in Voting Act (CRVA)