The Charlotte News
Friday, August 30, 1957
THREE EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that the Senate had passed the civil rights bill the previous night by a vote of 60 to 15, following 39 hours of debate. Thirty-seven Republicans and 23 Democrats supported the measure, with 20 Senators being absent. Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina conducted a one-man filibuster, talking for more than 24 hours straight, a record to that point. The Southern talkers had admitted from the outset that they did not have the necessary support to carry out a full filibuster and no one had joined Senator Thurmond in his solo effort. It was the first civil rights legislation to pass Congress in 80 years, the House having passed the final measure the prior Tuesday. The bill was limited to enforcement of voting rights, in its Part IV, through injunctions and contempt for violation of same, entitling, in Part V, a cited contemnor to a jury in a new trial should the ultimate sentence in a court trial exceed 45 days and/or a $300 fine, with the right otherwise discretionary with the trial judge. The sentence in no event could exceed six months and a fine. The bill also established a civil rights commission to study civil rights and a civil rights division of the Justice Department for the purpose of enforcement. While the bill fell short of the original objective of the Administration, it was nevertheless considered a victory.
To provide a flavor of the views on each side, as carried forward seven years, CBS would air a debate on March 18, 1964, anent the 1964 Civil Rights Act, to be passed and signed into law the following July 2, extending, pursuant to the Commerce Clause, rights to public accommodations such as restaurants, theaters and inns without discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin, between Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, considered the primary Senate champion of civil rights, subsequently in 1965, to become Vice-President, and Senator Thurmond. That debate had been ongoing since the 1948 Democratic national convention when, upon the introduction of the most liberal civil rights plank to that time to the platform by then-Mayor of Minneapolis Humphrey, endorsed in his first Senate election that year by actor Ronald Reagan, Senator Thurmond would lead the "Dixiecrats"—a term coined at The News—, or, more properly, the States' Rights Democrats, in a walk-out of the convention into a third-party run. The Sooo-uth shall rise agin!
The editorial page is here.
As we have fallen behind, full notes on the pages will be sporadic until we catch up.
Framed Edition
Links-Date — Links-Subj.