Robert Mann, When Freedom Would Triumph: The Civil Rights Struggle in Congress, 1954-1968

Abstract

Robert Mann, When Freedom Would Triumph: The Civil Rights Struggle in Congress, 1954-1968. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007. Pp. 318. Paper $19.95. It is with nostalgia that Robert Mann recalls the bipartisan moment in postwar history, when the U.S. Congress finally passed civil rights legislation that was previously thought highly unlikely. As one hero of this moment, Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen, has said, Nothing can stop an idea whose time had come. Mann alters this view somewhat. We have the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, and 1964 because of the concerted efforts of the Senate's pragmatists and idealists, as well as the political acumen and legislative expertise of a handful of leaders. The required votes for any civil rights legislation or cloture vote was never a given. Although the title of this book suggests coverage of the Voting Rights and Fair Housing Acts, these receive less attention, as does the history of the passage of civil rights legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives. This volume is an abridged version of Mann's earlier book The Walls of Jericho: Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Russell, and the Struggle for Civil Rights (1996). More than half of the chapters have remained nearly intact, and little new material appears in this edition. What has changed is that Mann has stepped back from featuring the three political leaders explicitly. Johnson, Humphrey, and Russell are still integral this story, but Mann chooses not organize the narrative around them. Their contributions are fundamental, but so were the efforts of others. It would have helped the reader had Mann clearly defined why these men received so much attention earlier and what their collective biographies can tell us about the transformation of the Senate and perhaps by proxy, the nation. While civil rights are of great concern Mann, it is the Senate personalities and the process of negotiation and political maneuvering that most interests him. The Congress as an institution and its rules within the context of passing civil rights legislation receive full and fascinating treatment here. Street protests and mass mobilizations appear in these pages as a backdrop the floor fights and debates in the two chambers. For example, the ongoing prayer vigil at the Lincoln Memorial and the planned Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) stall-in at the World's Fair in the spring of 1964 make brief appearances that inform and inspire members of Congress. Events such as the civil rights protests in Birmingham in 1963 and Selma, Alabama, in 1965 dramatize the need for new legislation, illustrate the battle lines within Congress, and guide its legislative activities. Through his use of a wide range of secondary sources and memoirs, Mann depicts a changing institution from one that adhered the old rules, championed by southern segregationists, into a new, more liberal legislative body. For Mann, Richard Russell, the leader of the conservative southern Democrats, becomes the symbol of the outmoded, outdated Senate. Russell is described as the one who walked between the aisles, as well as through and around them, gathering the votes he needed fight civil rights legislation to the last ditch. …