“Under my administration, the words ‘Liberty and Justice for all’ and ‘All men are created equal’ will ring the loudest.” -From Hubert Humphrey's inauguration address
Hubert Humphrey's administration began on a happy note. He had overcome a serious challenger in Richard Nixon. As his presidency began Humphrey began to try to push Civil Rights through Congress. He passed the Civil RIghts Act of 1957. The act would ban literacy tests which were not only used to disenfranchise blacks, but other minorities and poor whites. It also banned discrimination in public places, banned state discrimination, banned discrimination of schools, added a bipartisan group called the United States Commission on Civil Rights to defend civil rights, abolished the poll tax, and banned any federally funded agencies from discrimination, if they did not obey they would lose their federal funding. Humphrey's push for civil rights legislation helped insure that the Democrats would have the African-American vote in future elections.
While the Civil Rights act of 1957 was important for the Humphrey administration, the recession of 1958 hit the administration hard. The Democrats no longer looked like the party that would save the economy. The Democrats suffered big losses in midterm elections and it made the Humphrey administration worried about the next election.
Humphrey's administration became the one to start the space race. On October 4th 1957 the Soviet Union attempted to launch a satellite into space, named Sputnik 1. However, the satellite exploded on launch. After their failures the Soviet Union used a satellite that they had been working on called object D (Sputnik 3 in OTL). They renamed it Lenin 1, because it was to be launched on Lenin’s birthday, and launched it on April 20, 1958. The launch was successful and attracted the attention of the Humphrey administration. Humphrey decided that it was time to create a space program, or else he’d look weak compared to the Soviets. Humphery set up the National Space Exploration Agency (NSEA) as a reaction to this. Humphrey put former Under Secretary of State for Harry Truman James E. Webb as head of NSEA.
Under the Humphrey administration he appointed the first ever woman to the Supreme Court, Florence Ellinwood Allen. Allen had been a judge in the United States Court of Appeals since 1934. Her nomination marked a great moment for women’s rights in the United States. She was confirmed by the senate on March 21st 1957. Jeannette Rankin, the first women to ever serve in the House of Representatives said:
“Today is a great day for women everywhere. We can tell our little girls in this country that they can do anything if the put their mind to it! They can be a member of the Supreme Court, of the Senate, of the House, heck, they can be president! Thank you Hubert Humphrey for finally breaking the glass ceiling that has hung above our heads for so long! Thank you Florence Ellinwood Allen for showing the world that women can do anything!”
Other Hubert Humphrey Supreme court nominations:
William J. Brennan Jr. (1957)
Peter Woodbury (1959)
