Risen - The Bill of the Century: the Epic Battle for the Civil Rights Act

No one can write a book of serious historical research without the help of countless archivists and librarians. The people at the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Kennedy Library and Museum, the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum, the Presbyterian Historical Society, the Center for Jewish History, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Georgia, the Ohio State University, Wayne State University, the University of Montana, and the University of Buffalo deserve my deepest gratitude. I am especially indebted to Allen Fisher and his colleagues at the Johnson Library. Rodolfo Villarreal-Ros at the University of Montana and Lindsey Patterson at the Ohio State University provided critical research assistance into the papers of Mike Mansfield and William McCulloch, respectively.

I also thank all the people who lent their time to speak with me about their experiences working on the bill, including Birch Bayh, Al Bronstein, John Doar, David Filvaroff, Nicholas Katzenbach, Robert Kimball, Roger Mudd, Jack Rosenthal, Lee White, and Ben Zelenko.

Adam Goodheart, the C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, and Washington College were kind enough to give me a Frederick Douglass Fellowship in the spring of 2013, which supported me during the outset of my writing. Jeff Shesol and David Greenberg read parts or drafts of the book and provided me with invaluable feedback; for that I am very thankful.

My agent, Heather Schroder, gave me the initial impetus to pursue a book about the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and she later helped me shape my proposal and find it a home. Fortunately, that home was with Peter Ginna and the people at Bloomsbury Press, who helped turn my awkward manuscript into what I hope is a compelling narrative.

I would be remiss if I did not thank all of my coworkers at the New York Times op-ed department, who provided me with encouragement and inspiration.

Finally, to my familyTalia, Elliot, Joanna, Mom, Dad, Michael, and the rest: thanks for being there, and for putting up with me for all these years, and not just the ones when I was writing this book.

Clay Risen is a staff editor for the New York Times op-ed section. Previously he served as an editor at the New Republic and as the managing editor of the noted quarterly Democracy: A Journal of Ideas . His journalism has also appeared in a wide variety of publications, including the Atlantic , Smithsonian , and the Washington Post . His first book, A Nation on Fire: America in the Wake of the King Assassination , published in 2009, received much critical acclaim; he is also the author of American Whiskey, Bourbon and Rye: A Guide to the Nations Favorite Spirit and a coeditor of The New York Times : Disunion: Modern Historians Revisit and Reconsider the Civil War from Lincolns Election to the Emancipation Proclamation . He lives in New York.

Author Interviews

Birch Bayh, Al Bronstein, John Doar, David Filvaroff, Jack Greenberg, Nicholas Katzenbach, Robert Kimball, Roger Mudd, Jack Rosenthal, Michael I. Sovern, Lee White, Ben Zelenko.

Archives

Center for Jewish History, New York, N.Y.

American Jewish Congress Papers

Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, Ill.

Everett M. Dirksen Papers

Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum, Austin, Tex.

Administrative History Files

Horace Busby Office Files

Legislation Background Files

Mike Manatos Office Files

Bill Moyers Office Files

Lawrence OBrien Office Files

George Reedy Office Files

Presidential Statements

Reports on Enrolled Legislation

Reports on Pending Legislation

Vice Presidential Office Files

Lee White Office Files

White House Central Files

Henry Hall Wilson Office Files

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, Mass.

Robert F. Kennedy Papers

Burke Marshall Office Files

Victor Navasky Papers

Presidential Office Files

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Papers

Theodore Sorensen Office Files

Lee White Office Files

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Emanuel Celler Papers

Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Papers

NAACP Papers

Joseph L. Rauh Jr. Papers

Mississippi Department of Archives and History Online Collection

Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission Papers

National Archives

House Judiciary Committee Papers

Ohio Congressional Archives, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

William M. McCulloch Papers

Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Penn.

National Council of Churches Archives

United Presbyterian Church Archives

The University of Buffalo LibrarySpecial Collections, Buffalo, N.Y.

David B. Filvaroff and Raymond E. Wolfinger Civil Rights Act Papers

The University of California, Berkeley, Special Collections, Berkeley, Calif.

Harry Kingman Papers

Thomas H. Kuchel Papers

The University of Montana Archives and Special Collections, Missoula, Mont.

Mike Mansfield Papers

Wayne State University Archives, Detroit, Mich.

United Auto Workers Community Action Program Files

United Auto Workers Special Projects Department Files

Walter P. Reuther Papers

Books and Dissertations

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Bradlee, Benjamin C., and John F Kennedy. Conversations with Kennedy . New York: W. W. Norton, 1984.

Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 195463 . New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988.

. Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 196365 . New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998.

Bryant, Nick. The Bystander: John F. Kennedy and the Struggle for Black Equality . New York: Basic Books, 2006.

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. The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012.

Carter, Dan T. The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics . Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995.

Chen, Anthony S. The Fifth Freedom: Jobs, Politics, and Civil Rights in the United States, 19411972 . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.

Coser, Lewis A. Men of Ideas: A Sociologists View . First Free Press Paperbacks ed. New York: Free Press, 1997.

Countryman, Matthew. Up South: Civil Rights and Black Power in Philadelphia . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.

Crespino, Joseph. In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.

. Strom Thurmonds America . New York: Hill and Wang, 2012.

Dallek, Robert. Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times . New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Dichter, Mark S., David A. Cathcart, and Barbara Lindemann. Employment Discrimination Law. Foreword by Norbert A. Schlei. Washington D.C.: American Bar Association, Section of Labor and Employment Law, Bureau of National Affairs, 1987.

Dierenfield, Bruce J. Keeper of the Rules: Congressman Howard W. Smith of Virginia . Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987.