By Matthew M. Peek, Montana Historical Society Photograph Archivist
"Man’s inhumanity to man cuts across all nations and races. I would like to see us eradicate not only racial injustice but the injustices that breed racial injustice." ~Lee Metcalf
June 19,
2014, marks the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Senate’s passage of the United
States Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Civil Rights Act outlawed discrimination
in employment practices, public places and accommodations, and hastened
desegregation of public schools. The U.S. Senate received civil rights bill
H.R. 7152 from the House of Representatives on February 26, 1964. Senate
Majority Leader Mike Mansfield placed it directly on the Senate calendar,
rather than refer it to a committee chaired by a civil rights opponent. The
bill’s opposition leader, Sen. Richard B. Russell (D-GA), objected to
Mansfield’s action; however, his objection was overruled by the Senate’s
presiding officer, Sen. Lee Metcalf of Montana. Metcalf’s ruling ensured that
the bill remained live.
 |
| Senator Lee Metcalf at his Senate office desk in Washington, D.C. [circa July 1964] (Lot 31 B1/7.04) |
A 53-year
old junior U.S. Senator from Montana, Lee Metcalf had been selected in June
1963 by Mansfield to replace Senator Carl Hayden of Arizona as Acting President Pro Tempore.
Metcalf carried an air of authority, with a booming voice and presence to
match, which few senators could ignore. In a February 15, 1964, letter, he
stated: “I do not hold myself out to be an expert on the Civil Rights Bill. I
am going to participate in the debate, listen carefully and try to analyze and
read the material that is presented. . . . I do know that if I were a Negro and
treated as I can see Negroes are treated here in Washington, D.C., I would be
protesting, I would be marching, and I would be sitting in, too.” To support
their efforts, he presided over all important Senate votes and floor debate
related to this legislation.
In 1964,
Montana was mixed on its views of the pending civil rights legislation. With a
population of only 1,467 African Americans in Montana at the time, many
Montanans believed it would address only the racial issues inherent to a
“Southern” problem. Metcalf, however, reminded the public that the bill’s
measures would apply to anyone facing racial discrimination, including
Montana’s 21,181 Native Americans.
On June 10,
1964, after 75 days of filibustering by anti-civil rights senators, Mansfield
forced a cloture vote to end the debate. Despite Southern senators’ efforts to
reject a cloture vote, Metcalf overruled them using Senate parliamentary rules
few legislators knew existed. The Senate voted 71-29 in favor of cloture, the
first time it ever invoked cloture on a civil rights bill.
The bill
was approved by the Senate on June 19, 1964. Montana’s junior senator had
successfully controlled the longest debate in the U.S. Senate’s history. After
the vote, an unidentified anti-civil rights senator told a news reporter that
Lee Metcalf “was the Civil Rights Bill’s secret weapon.”
.jpg) |
| Rep. Lee Metcalf meets with Senate Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate, August 1960.
Pictured (left to right): Democratic presidential candidate Senator John F. Kennedy; Senator Henry M. Jackson, National Democratic Party Chairman; Metcalf; Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson; and Senate Assistant Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (Lot 31 B16/1.01)
|
The Civil
Rights Act of 1964—officially Public Law 88-352 (78 Stat. 241) — was signed
into law on July 2, 1964, by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Without the
dedication and character of a Montana U.S. Senator, the Civil Rights Act may
not have passed in the form we know it today.
If you would like
to learn more about Senator Metcalf’s role in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, you
can find the Lee Metcalf Papers (MC 172) and the Lee Metcalf Photograph
Collection (Lot 31) at the Montana Historical Society Research Center.
