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Negotiations to Support a Bipartisan Compromise Bill
House Judiciary Subcommittee No. 5 held public hearings on the civil rights bill from May 8 to August 2, 1963. In September the subcommittee approved a draft of the bill that accommodated all the demands of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR). Attorney General Robert Kennedy appeared before the full Judiciary Committee on October 15 to ask for a "more reasonable" bill. The Kennedy administration was convinced that the subcommittee's draft could not win enough Republican votes to pass the House. The NAACP and LCCR refused to yield. President Kennedy directly intervened by calling the House leadership of both parties to the White House on October 23. After five days of negotiations they agreed to support a bipartisan compromise bill. The Judiciary Committee officially reported out the bill on November 20. |