The Bill of the Century: The Epic Battle for the Civil Rights Act (63 page)

Alabama governor George Wallace confronts Deputy Attorney General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach at the University of Alabama, June 11, 1963.

Library of Congress

President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson at a meeting on civil rights legislation with American business leaders, June 4, 1963.

John F. Kennedy

Presidential Library and Museum President Kennedy discussing his forthcoming civil rights legislation in a nationally televised address, June 11, 1963.

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

Protesters demanding an end to employment discrimination at the March on Washington, August 28, 1963.

Library of Congress

Leaders of the March on Washington meeting with President Kennedy after the event. From left: Whitney Young, Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, Joachim Prinz, Matthew Ahmann, A. Philip Randolph, Kennedy, Walter Reuther, Lyndon B. Johnson, Roy Wilkins.

Library of Congress

Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Representative Emanuel Celler (N.Y.) during Kennedy’s October 16, 1963, testimony on the Civil Rights Act before the House Judiciary Committee.

Rogers Photo Archive

President Johnson addresses a joint session of Congress on November 27, 1963. Behind him are House Speaker John McCormack (Mass.) and Senator Carl Hayden (Ariz.), the president pro tempore of the Senate.

AP Photo

President Johnson meeting with civil rights leaders on January 18, 1964. From left: Martin Luther King Jr., Johnson, Whitney Young, James Farmer.

Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library

Southern senators meet to discuss their historic filibuster against the Civil Rights Act. From left: Sam Ervin (N.C.), James Eastland (Miss.), John Stennis (Miss.), obscured, obscured, Richard Russell (Ga.), Spessard Holland (Fla.), Russell Long (La.), Allen Ellender (La.), Willis Robertson (Va.), Strom Thurmond (S.C.).

Ted Russell/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Theological students stand vigil in support of the Civil Rights Act in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

Francis Miller/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

A meeting in a Denver church to discuss local activism in support of the Civil Rights Act, March 10, 1964. Meetings like this were common across the Midwest that year.

Photo by George Crouter/
The Denver Post
via Getty Images