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In the sixth installment of our NHPRC funded project to digitize Hubert H. Humphrey's speech texts we focus on the 1964 Civil Rights Act and presidential campaign.

Hubert Humphrey gave this speech at Johns Hopkins University on January 17, 1964. In it he spoke about the anger and grief he felt after President Kennedy's assassination and other acts of violence, extremism, hatred and ignorance of the previous year. These acts included the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama, riots at the University of Mississippi, the murder of civil rights activists Medgar Evers and William Moore, and the use of dogs, high pressure hoses and cattle prods on civil rights marchers. He used this anger to explain the events that were about to take place in the Senate.

President Kennedy had introduced the civil rights bill shortly before his death. After his assassination, the House of Representatives passed the bill without a filibuster on February 10, 1964. Lyndon Johnson, promising to continue the work that Kennedy had begun, put Hubert Humphrey in charge of getting the bill passed in the Senate. Humphrey's problem was the strong opposition of the Southerners and their careful organization of a Senate filibuster.

In a CBS report broadcast on March 18, 1964 Senate Democratic Whip Humphrey, as floor manager of the civil rights bill, faced off against Democratic Senator and head of the southern opposition, Strom Thurmond. In the debate both men made their case for and against the bill's passage. Humphrey's approach went beyond a legislative exercise and insisted on the debate's moral nature: "This passage of the civil rights issue or bill to me is one of the great moral challenges of our time. This is not a partisan issue. This is not a sectional issue. This is in essence a national issue, and it is a moral issue, and it must be won by the American people" (p. 16).

President Johnson did not think the legislation would pass. The Southern Senators had repeatedly blocked civil rights legislation in the past by organizing into teams, splitting up the filibuster into manageable parts. Humphrey knew that fighting this opposition would be difficult. He therefore organized his forces in a similar way by creating teams for each part of the bill and appointing captains for each team, had frequent strategy meetings, and even issued a newsletter to clarify the nuances of the bill. He made sure that there were 51 Senators present or available at all times in case the Southerners requested a quorum call. As he organized his colleagues, he also began working on those Republicans who were initially against the legislation, but who would be needed in a bi-partisan coalition for the required 67 votes, a two-thirds majority, to close down a Senate debate. It had never before been achieved.

Senator Thomas Kuchel of California was the Republican floor leader for the bill. He and Humphrey worked together very successfully. Senator Everett Dirksen, however, was the key figure Humphrey needed on his side, and who ultimately spent much of his time working with Humphrey to revise the bill in order to attract enough Republican swing votes to end the filibuster. Although some goaded Humphrey for giving Dirksen too much of the credit, Humphrey maintained throughout that all would mean nothing if the bill were defeated, however, if the bill succeeded there would be enough praise for everyone (Education of a Public Man, p. 206).

Senator Humphrey continuously emphasized the moral element of the civil rights struggle. Spiritual leaders from many communities were invited to come to the capital and make their presence felt during the course of the debate and many did, prompting Humphrey to say later that the bill would never have been passed without them. In this speech in May, after two months of debate, Humphrey encouraged spiritual leaders to continue their support and to keep mobilized even after the bill passed.

On June 10, 1964, after more than three months, the Senate voted. "The tension that morning was palpable. Confidence and enthusiasm were muted by a fear that, somehow, something had come unraveled... We were aglow with the electricity that charged the air in a chamber filled with a dramatic, historic tension beyond anything even the most senior senators had experienced" (Education of a Public Man, p. 210).

They won, the Senate voting 71 to 29 to end the civil rights filibuster. "For me, personally, it was the culmination of the full year's fight for the Civil Rights Act, of fifteen years' battle for civil rights in the United States Senate, and of a lifetime in politics in which equal opportunity had been the objective above all others" (p. 210).

One week after the Senate vote to impose cloture, while the final arguments were continuing, Humphrey received tragic news that his son was in the hospital with a malignant cancerous growth that would need surgery. Humphrey remained in Washington to see the bill's final passage and then raced to his son's side the next day. His son recovered fully from his ordeal.

On June 23, 1964 Humphrey gave this speech before the NAACP annual convention. He thanked two people from Minnesota who worked diligently for the cause. Clarence Mitchell, director of the Washington bureau of the NAACP had been head of the Urban League in St. Paul Minnesota when Humphrey had first met him in the early 1940s. Roy Wilkins was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, attended the University of Minnesota, and, after being the executive secretary of the NAACP became its executive director in 1964.

On July 2nd President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on national television. Humphrey and Dirksen gave this radio interview a few days after and spoke about the future of the civil rights struggle.

In late July the Republicans held their national convention in California and President Johnson sent an additional 5,000 advisors to South Vietnam. Public concern began to surface about both South East Asia and who Johnson's running-mate would be in the next Presidential election that November. In this Face the Nation interview Humphrey was questioned about both of these issues the same day that U.S. destroyers were attacked by the North Vietnamese in the Gulf of Tonkin. Humphrey emphasized that he did not think that combat troops would be necessary in Vietnam and maintained that Lyndon Johnson was the presidential candidate who offered the most restraint where military matters were concerned.

Much debate that year centered on who Johnson's running mate would be, debate created mostly by Johnson himself. On the Sunday before the Democratic National Convention Humphrey and Minnesota-born Eugene McCarthy, both contenders for the position and friends, made an appearance on Meet the Press and gave this interview.

Johnson offered Humphrey the vice presidency shortly before the convention, emphasizing the difficulties the position would hold and recognizing the strain it could cause on their current relationship. Humphrey felt that he was ready for the challenge and accepted privately, writing this acceptance speech with the help of his friends, including Bill Moyers who added the refrain "But not Senator Goldwater" after each important statement (The Education of a Public Man, p. 226-227). Humphrey accepted the nomination in Atlantic City, New Jersey in this speech. Due to his recognized oratory abilities, he then began doing the bulk of the campaigning for both he and President Johnson.

During the campaign against Barry Goldwater, Humphrey discussed the history of the vice presidency while giving this speech in Paducah, Kentucky, home of former Vice President Alben Barkley. Humphrey also related the fact that his campaign plane, leased by the Democratic National Convention, had been nick-named the "Happy Warrior," a name originally given to Al Smith in the 1928 presidential campaign, and one that he would often be called himself in the coming years.

In November of 1964 Johnson and Humphrey defeated their opponents in a landslide victory, taking 44 of 50 states. On the 9th of November Ray Scherer of NBC News interviewed Vice President-elect Humphrey and the conversation again turned to the role of the vice president.

In December Humphrey attended a rally in New York City to pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and reflect on the past year in this speech. Both he and King had accomplished a great deal in helping to create a "coalition of consciousness" around the issue of civil rights. Little over a year after Humphrey witnessed King's speech on the Washington Mall, King had received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work and Humphrey himself had become the Vice President of the United States. Though Humphrey admitted that these titles were superficial, he recognized that both he and King were focused on a greater achievement still, one where the "United States is a community at peace with itself" (p. 7).

Unfortunately, however, the war in Vietnam was beginning to escalate, taking much needed resources and attention away from the struggle for civil rights.

These speech texts, as well as all of Humphrey's speeches from 1941-1964 are linked to the inventory of his Speech Text Files. More of Humphrey's speeches will be made available each month throughout this project. Look for the year 1965 in March!

This project was awarded the support of a $46,000 grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) administered by the National Archives.

Learn more about how the NHPRC helps preserve records of enduring national historical value and promotes their public access and interpretation through archival and documentary programs.