For poll tax repeal calendar 1939-1949, see vol. III, pp. ccxlviii-ccli.

For FEPC struggle, see vol. III, pp. ccliv-ccxc

For Jim Crow Travel, see vol. III, pp. ccxlvi-ccxiii.

1901

December 1901 – Two Massachusetts Republicans, Sen. George Frisbie Hoar and Rep. William H. Moody introduce an anti-lynching bill designed by Albert E. Pillsbury, a prominent Bostonian and former attorney general of the Commonwealth, but Congress does not act on the measure.

1915

“Undoubtedly the most important work of the year has been the Association’s vigilance and activity in opposing hostile legislation in Washington. For over a year it has employed a man in each branch of Congress. These men are experts, newspaper men who are trained especially for legislative work. They keep in the closest touch with New York Headquarters and with the District of Columbia Branch, which acts as a Congressional Committee and takes the lead in the local campaign against hostile bills. As soon as word is received of a discriminating measure the Association immediately wires its branches urging them to influence their representatives in Congress to vote against it. Officers, directors and friends of the Association cooperate personally and when necessary representatives are sent to Washington to appear at Committee hearings. No better example of the way the Association is able to work through its branches can be given than the following letter from Judge Brown of the Appellate Court of Illinois, who is President of the Chicago Branch.

Illinois Appellate Court, Chambers of Mr. Justice Brown.

                                                                                                Chicago, January 15, 1915.

My Dear Dr. Bentley:

            In compliance with your request over the telephone, I take pleasure in sending you a report of the action taken in behalf of our Branch of the National Association in relation to the legislation concerning Negro aliens and also the legislation which passed the House of Representatives concerning intermarriage in the District of Columbia. Immediately upon the passage of the Immigration Act with its prohibition of the admission of Negro aliens, I telegraphed for the Branch to the Hon. James Mann, the Hon. Martin Madden, the Hon. Adolph Sabath, in the House of Representatives, protesting against the said amendment and asking them to exert their utmost efforts to defeat it. In these telegrams yuourself, Mr. Allison, Jane Addams, George Packard, Robert McMurdy and Sophonisba Breckenridge personally joined.

1918

April 11, 1918  -- Rep. Leonidas C. Dyer (D., Mo.) introduces H. R. 11279, an anti-lynching bill that invoked the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution to safeguard American citizens from lynching by making it a federal crime. This legislation is not supported by the NAACP and does not come up for a vote in the House. H.R. 11279 bears a strong resemblance to the bill drafted in 1901 by Albert Pillsbury that defined a mob as three or more persons acting without authority at law. 

1919

April 14, 1919 -- Representative Dyer introduces H. R. 259, another anti-lynching bill similar to the previous year's measure; this time, although the measure had the full support of the NAACP, it still failed to come up for a vote in the House.

1921

April 21, 1921  -- Representative Dyer introduces another anti-lynching bill -- H. R. 13.  The bill is sent to the House Committee on the Judiciary, where after much discussion, it is favorably reported out and sent to the House floor.

1922

January 26, 1922 – House passes Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill (H. R. 13) by a vote of 230 to 119 and sends it to the Senate.

January 27, 1922 – Senate considers Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill (H. R. 13) and sends it to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

June 30, 1922 – Senate Judiciary Committee approves the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill (H. R. 13) and sends it to the floor of the Senate.

September 21, 1922 – The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill is brought up on the floor of the Senate, but a filibuster prevents discussion of the measure and forces its withdrawal. Thus no action is taken on it before Congress adjourns.

1923

December 3, 1923 – When the 68^th Congress convenes, Rep. L.C. Dyer re-introduces the Anti-Lynching Bill as H.R. 1, and it is referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

1924

  January 10, 1924 – The House Committee on the Judiciary reports out favorably the Dyre Anti-Lynching Bill.

January 21, 1924 – Representative Dyre introduces a resolution asking for a rule to the the bill immediate consideration. The resolution is referred to the House Committee on Rules, but action is delayed for several months, and Congress adjurns for the summer without any action being taken on the bill.

1925

 December 7, 1925 – On the opening Day of 69^th Congress, H.R. 3777, a revised anti-lynching bill, is introduced by Representative Dyer. On the following day it is introduced in the Senate as S. 121 by Senator William B. McKinley of Illinois.

1926

February 16, 1926 – A hearing on the McKinley bill is held before the Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, where the James Weldon Johnson, NAACP secretary, testifies on the need for anti-lynching legislation; a memorandum on the bill prepared by Herbert K. Stockton of the Association’s Legal Committee is filed with the committee together with his testimony.   

1934

January 3, 1934 – Senators Edward P. Costigan (D., Colo.) and Robert F. Wagner, Sr. (D., N.Y.) introduce the Costigan-Wagner Federal Anti-lynching Bill (S. 1978) which provides for action by the federal government in apprehending, trying and punishing suspects of lynching if the state, after 30 days, has not taken any action to punish lynchers by fine or imprisonment. It is sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

February 19, 20, 1934 – The Senate Judiciary Committee, under its chairman Sen. Frederick Van Nuys of Indiana, holds hearings on S. 1978. The most spectacular feature of the hearing is the testimony of Attorney General Preston Lane of Maryland on his state’s unsuccessful efforts to secure any action whatsoever against persons whom state investigators had declared to be implicated in the lynching of George Armwood at Princess Anne, Maryland, October 18, 1933. Although the committee favorably reports the bill, it is not called up for a vote because Senate leaders could not obtain unanimous consensus to do so.

April  12, 1934 – S. 1978 is favorably reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and goes to the floor of the Senate, where no further action is taken.

1935

January 4, 1935 – Senators Edward P. Costigan and Robert F. Wagner reintroduce an amended anti-lynching bill (S. 24). The bill again goes to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it eventually is favorably reported out on March 13 and sent to the Senate floor.

May 1, 1935 – The Costigan-Wagner Anti-Lynching Bill dies on the floor of the Senate due to a filibuster.

1936

January 6, 1936 – Sen. Frederick Van Nuys (D., Ind.) introduces a resolution to establish a Senate committee to investigate the 14 lynchings that had occurred in the eight months since the filibuster that killed the Costigan-Wagner Anti-Lynching Bill. The resolution is sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

February 11, 1936 – The resolution is reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but is sent to the Senate Committee on Audit and Control where it dies.

June 18, 1936 – A petition placed on the speaker’s desk by Rep. Joseph A. Gavagan of New York for the discharge of the anti-lynching bill from the House Judiciary Committee dies because it fails to receive the required 218 signatures.

1937

January 6, 1937 – House considers numerous anti-lynching bills, among them ones proposed by Reps. Joseph A. Gavagan (D., N. Y.) (H. R. 1507) and Arthur W. Mitchell (D., Ill.) (H. R. 2251); the NAACP throws its support behind the Gavagan Anti-Lynching Bill. Both bills are sent to the House Judiciary Committee, where the chairman refuses to report out any of them. 

January 7, 1937—Senators Wagner and Van Nuys sponsor an anti-lynching bill that dies after being subjected to a filibuster of six weeks.

April 1, 1937 – House Judiciary Committee reports out the Gavagan Anti-Lynching Bill (H. R. 1507); the weaker Mitchell bill, which earlier was reported out to the House floor, is defeated by a vote of 257-122 on April 7, 1937.

April 15, 1937 – House passes the Gavagan Anti-Lynching Bill 277-119.

December 20, 1937 – Senate considers Gavagan Anti-Lynching Bill, but agree to make it the first order of business in January.

1938

January 27, 1938 – Although the Gavagan Anti-Lynching Bill (H. R. 1507) passed the House on April 15, 1957, dies on Senate floor on February 16 as a result of a filibuster.

April 25, 1938 – Senators Robert F. Wagner, Sr. (D., N. Y.) and Frederick Van Nuys (D., Ind.) sponsor anti-lynching legislation that is a companion to Gavagan’s proposed bill; this legislation goes to the Senate Judicial Committee.

June 12, 1938 – Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938—establishes minimum hourly wage

June 21, 1938 – The full Senate Judiciary Committee favorably reports out the Wagner-Van Nuys Anti-Lynching Bill.

July 31, 1938 – Senate tables the Wagner-Van Nuys Bill after it is offered as an amendment to wage and hour legislation.

1939

August 5, 1939 -- Rep. Lee E. Geyer (D., Cal.), on behalf of the Southern Conference for Human Welfare, introduces the first federal bill (H. R. 7534) to abolish the poll tax as a prerequisite for the election of senators or representatives. The bill is sent to the House Judiciary Committee, and although hearings are held during the next year, the bill dies in committee.

1940

January 8, 1940 – Representative Gavagan, joined by Rep. Hamilton Fish (D., N.Y.), sponsor an anti-lynching bill (H. R. 801) that is sent to the House Judiciary Committee. which favorably reports it out and sends it to the full House.

 January 10, 1940 -- The House passes H. R. 801, the Gavagan-Fish Anti-Lynching Bill, by a vote of 252 to 131 and sends it to the Senate for consideration. Hearings are held on February 6and 7, and March 12.

 

A companion bill, the Wagner-Van Nuys-Capper Anti-lynching Bill (S. 845) is favorably reported to the Senate, by a vote of 12 – 4, on March 25.

March 14, 1940 – Senate considers H. R. 801, the Gavagan-Fish Anti-Lynching Bill, which is sent to a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

April 8, 1940 – The Senate Judiciary Committee receives the bill from the subcommittee; it is subsequently approved and sent to the Senate floor, where it is killed by a filibuster and be removed from further consideration.

1941

January 3, 1941 -- Representative Geyer introduces anti-poll tax legislation (H. R. 1024); the bill is sent to the House Judiciary Committee.

March 31, 1941 – Sen. Claude Pepper (D., Fla.) introduces anti-poll tax legislation (S. 1280); the bill is sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

July 19, 1941 -- Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings on H. R. 1280, the Pepper Anti-Poll Tax bill; over the next eighteen months, the committee will hold three separate hearings on the measure.

1942

July 20, 1942 – The House considers a measure (H. R. 7412) sponsored by Rep. Vito A. Marcantonio (A.L.P., N. Y.) to make permanent the Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC) (established under Executive Order 8802 issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and funded through the Executive Office of the President). The measure is referred to the House Judiciary Committee, where it dies.

September 9, 1942 – House passes Soldiers’ Vote Act (H. R. 7416), permitting Armed Forces personnel from poll tax states to vote without payment of poll tax.

September 16, 1942 – Senate passes Soldiers’ Vote Act, which subsequently becomes law (P. L. 712-561).

September 23, 1942 – Senate Judiciary Committee reports out S. 1280, the Pepper Anti-Poll Tax bill, and sends it to the full committee.

September 24, 1942 – Senate Judiciary Committee is discharged from further consideration of S. 1280, the anti-poll tax measure.

October 11, 1942 – House Judiciary Committee favorably reports out H. R. 1024, Rep. Geyer’s anti-poll tax legislation and sends it to the floor for further consideration.

October 20, 1942 – House passes H. R. 1024 and sends it to the Senate for consideration.

October 26, 1942 – Senate Judiciary Committee favorably reports out H. R. 1024 to the full Senate.

November 13, 1942 –Senate begins consideration of H. R. 1024, co-sponsored by Sen. Pepper; however, a six-day filibuster on the part of Southern senators ended any possibility of the bill’s passage, as a motion to invoke cloture was defeated.

1943

January 6, 1943—Rep. Vito A. Marcantonio (A.L.P, N.Y.), with five other congressmen, introduces H. R. 7, another anti-poll tax bill. The bill was sent to the House Judiciary Committee.

February 5, 1943 – Rep. Marcantonio reintroduces his FEPC bill (H. R. 1732). The bill is again referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

March 5, 1943 – House Judiciary Committee reports out H. R. 7 and sends it to the House Rules Committee.

May 6, 1943 – H. R. 7 is forced out of the Rules Committee and sent to the floor of the House.

May 24, 1943 – Senate introduces S. 1227, a bill making active-duty service personnel federal officers within the meaning of the United States Criminal Code and providing punishment for killing or assaulting these servicemen. The measure is sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

May 24, 1943 – House passes H. R. 7, the Marcantonio Anti-Poll Tax Bill, and sends it to the Senate for consideration.

May 28, 1943 – H. R. 7 is sent to a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

September 23, 1943 – H. R. 7 is reported out of the subcommittee.

September 27, 1943 – Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings on H. R. 7.

October 25, 1943 – Senate Judiciary Committee holds further hearings on H. R. 7.

November 4, 1943  -- Rep. Marcantonio unsuccessfully attempts to have the House Judiciary Committee discharged from further consideration of H. R. 1732.

November 12, 1943 – Senate Judiciary Committee favorably reports out H. R. 7, the Marcantonio Anti-Poll Tax bill.

1944

January 3, 1944 – House considers H. R. 2992, a bill identical to S. 1227, making active duty servicemen federal officers, and it is submitted to the House Judiciary Committee.

January 15, 1944 – House considers H. R. 3986, the Dawson-Scanlon-LaFollette bill, designed to establish the right to freedom from discrimination in employment and to create a permanent FEPC. The measure is sent to the House Labor and Education Committee.

January 17, 1944 – Senate Judiciary Committee reports out S. 1227, the bill making active-duty servicemen federal officers. It goes to the full Senate. (12/30/44 report)

 

February 8, 1944 – Senate passes S. 1227. (12/30/44 report). The measure is sent to the House where no action is taken.

February 8, 1944 – Senate passes Soldiers Vote Bill (S. 1285), sponsored by Senators Scott W. Lucas (D., Ill.) and Theodore F. Green (D., R.I.) to revise absentee voting requirements for men and women in uniform so they could vote as an amendment to the States Rights bill sponsored by Southern members of the House of Representatives; Senate also passes the Green-Lucas bill by itself, sending both measures to the House-Senate Conference Committee.

February 23, 1944 – Sen. Richard B. Russell, Jr. (D., Ga.) sponsors an amendment to the Independent Appropriations bill (H.R. 4070) to cut off funding for the Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC), which was to be funded under the War Agencies Appropriation bill (H.R. 4879).

March 22, 1944 – During debate on the Russell Amendment, Sen. C. Douglas Buck (R., Del.) sponsors an amendment to the Independent Appropriations bill, H.R. 4070, to provide the FEPC with an appropriation of $150,000 for the balance of the fiscal year (to June 20, 1944), but it is ultimately defeated; the Russell Amendment is subsequently adopted and becomes law as part of the Independent Offices Appropriations Act of 1945.

May 9, 1944 – Senate opens debate on H. R. 7, the anti-poll tax bill.

May 15, 1944— Senate kills H.R. 7.

May 17, 1944 – A subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee favorably reports out H.R. 2992 for consideration by the full Committee.

May 25, 1944 – House Committee for Appropriations reports out H.R. 4879, the War Appropriations Bill, under which the FEPC is allotted $500,000 in funding for the next fiscal year.

June 15, 1944 – Senate (following House action on May 26m 2944) considers S. 4879.

June 20, 1944  -- Senate approves H.R. 4879, War Agencies Appropriations Bill, with a budget of $500,000 that extends the life of the FEPC to June 30, 1944, contingent on the provisions of three amendments that provide (1) the right of appeal to the President by all individuals or companies cited the FEPC and subjected to government contract cancellations in cases ruled by the Committee and its local representatives to involve acts of discrimination; (2) that the government can seize and operate no plants on the basis of findings of employment discrimination by the FPEC; and (3) that no decision by the FEPC can amend or modify any act of Congress.

June 23, 1944 – S. 2048, calling for nondiscrimination in employment and a strong (and permanent) FEPC is introduced in the Senate by a number of Senators including Dennis Chavez (D., N.M.) and Robert F. Wagner (D., N.Y.).

September 14, 1944 – Senate Conference Committee reports out Surplus War Property Bill; both the House (September 18) and the Senate (September 19) agreed with the conference report and the bill is sent to President Roosevelt for his signature (9/30/44 report—misfiled as 1943).

September 20, 1944 – S. 2048 is reported out by the Senate Labor Committee, after extensive hearings; however, the measure never makes it to the Senate floor.

November 28, 1944 – House Labor and Education Committee favorably reports out H.R. 3986, the Dawson-Scanlon-LaFollette bill, which is then sent to the House Rules Committee, where it dies.

1945

January 8, 1945 – House continues for two years the Select Committee to Investigate Executive Agencies (Smith Committee) pursuant to H. Res. 102 (1/31/45 report).

January 8, 1945 – Representative Marcantonio reintroduces H.R. 7, the anti-poll tax bill, which is sent to the House Judiciary Committee; the Committee favorably reports out H.R. 7 and sends it to the House Rules Committee.

January 9, 1945 – House considers H.R. 1296, identical to S. 181 (1/31/45 report).

January 9, 1945 – Senator Chavez introduces S. 101, which calls for a permanent FEPC and nondiscrimination in employment.

January 9, 1945 -- H.R. 2232, legislation proposed to establish a permanent Fair Employment Practice Commission (FEPC) is introduced and sent to the House Labor Committee (1/31/45 report).

January 9, 1945 – Six bills outlawing lynching, including H.R. 1698, are introduced in the House.  H.R. 1698, proposed by Rep. D. Lane Powers (R., N. J.) is introduced at the request of the NAACP (1/31/45 report); but it diesd in the House Rules Committee despite efforts to have it discharged from that committee (3/31/45 report).

January 10, 1945 – H. R. 2232, a measure proposed to establish a permanent FEPC (identical to S. 101) is introduced and sent to the House Labor Committee (1/31/45 report).

January 10, 1945 – Senate considers S. 181, the Educational Finance Act of 1945 and sends it to the Senate Education and Labor Committee (1/31/45 report).

January 10, 1945 – Senate considers S. 191, a bill to amend the Public Health Service Act and sends it to the Senate Education and Labor Committee (3/31/45 report).

January 16, 1945—House considers H. R. 1528, a bill to provide punishment for criminal assault on members of the armed forces, sending it to the House Judiciary Committee (2/28/45 report).

January 22, 1945 – Senate considers S. 380, the Full Employment Act of 1945, designed to allow the Federal Government to stimulate the postwar economy by assuring “the existence at all times of sufficient employment opportunities” to provide jobs for all persons able to work, and those who are looking for work. The Senate sends it to the Senate Banking and Currency Committee.

January 31, 1945 –A subcommittee of the House Labor Committee favorably reports out H. R. 2232 (1/31/45 report)

February 1, 1945 – House considers H. R. 1925, a bill to prohibit segregation in interstate transportation; the measure is sent to the House Committee on Foreign and Interstate Commerce (2/28/45 report)

February 20, 1945 – H. R. 2232 is reported out by the House Labor Committee and sent to the House Rules Committee (2/28/45 report).

March 12-14, 1945 – Senate Education and Labor Committee conducts hearings on S. 101, a companion bill to H. R. 2232 (3/31/45 report).

May 22, 1945 – A subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee considers the War Agencies Appropriations bill (h. R. 3368) and votes to cut the FEPC budget to $250,000, sending that recommendation to the full committee.

May 24, 1945 – S. 101 is reported out by the Senate Education and Labor Committee and is sent to the floor of the Senate.

May 29, 1945 – By a floor vote, House discharges the Rules Committee from further considering H. R. 7, Marcantonio Anti-Poll Tax Bill, and sends it to the floor of the House.

June 1. 1945 – House Appropriations Committee reports out H. R. 3368, the War Agencies Appropriations bill without any funding for the FEPC.

June 7, 1945 – House Rules Committee considers the War Agencies Appropriations bill and approves it; however, no funding for the FEPC is included in the approval.

June 8, 1945 – House passes H. R. 3368, the War Agencies Appropriations bill, and sends it to the Senate.

June 12, 1945—House passes H. R. 7, Marcantonio Anti-Poll Tax Bill; it is sent to the Senate, where it goes to the Judiciary Committee.

June 12, 1945 – House Rules Committee fails to report out H. R. 2232 (6/28/45 report). An attempt by Rep. Mary T. Norton (D., N. J.) to file a discharge petition to force the measure out of the Rules Committee fails, and the bill is kept off the House floor.

July 12, 1945 – Senate and House both agree to compromise budget granting FEPC $250,000 to liquidate the agency.

September 5, 1945 – Rep. Howard W. Smith (D., Va.) introduces H.R. 3937, to make it unlawful for a labor organization to contribute money in any federal election, as well as depriving labor organizations of bargaining rights and making them liable to a lawsuit in event of a strike against an employer with whom they had a “no strike” contract, regardless of whether the employer precipitated the strike or not. The House sends it to the House Military Affairs Committee.

September 18, 1945 – Senate Banking and Currency Committee reports out an amended Full Employment bill (S. 380) and sends it to the full Senate (9/30/45 report).

September 20, 1945 -- Senate Judiciary subcommittee favorably reports out H. R. 7 and sends it to the full committee.

September 28, 1945 – Senate passes an amended “Full Employment Bill” (S. 380) (9/30/45 report).

September 30, 1945 – Senate approves an amendment to S. 1274, the Unemployment Compensation Bill, that returns control of the United States Employment Service (USES) to the states. The bill, with the amendment, is subsequently passed by the Senate, and sent to the House for consideration.  The House refers the measure to the House Ways and Means Committee (10/31/45 report) where it is killed by a motion from Rep. Wilbur D. Mills (D., Ark.) to postpone indefinitely committee consideration.

October 5, 1945 – Senate Judiciary Committee favorably reports out H. R. 7 and sends it to the floor of the Senate.

October 18, 1945 – Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglas (D., Calif.) introduces H. R. 4420, to allow the Daughters of the American Revolution to continue its tax-exempt status only as long as it does not “discriminate against any person on account of race, creed, color, or national origin in admission to, or the commercial use or rental of said property.” The bill is sent to the House Committee on the District of Columbia, where hearings are held, but no further action is taken (10/31/45 report).

October 30, 1945 – House Military Affairs Committee reports out H. R. 3937 and sends it to the House Rules Committee.

November 5, 1945 – Rep. Sam Hobbs (D., Ala.) introduces H. R. 32 (“Hobbs Act”), to revise the 1934 Anti-Racketeering Act, which prohibits interference by violence or intimidation with the transportation or delivery of perishable farm products by a farmer or his employees to a market or processing plant. The bill is considered by many to be anti-labor as it gives the power to the federal government to interfere with strikebreakers.  The measure is sent to the House Labor Committee.

November 14, 1945 – The Senate considers S. 1592, the General Housing Act of 1945 (or the Wagner-Ellender-Taft Omnibus Housing Bill), designed to establish a national housing policy.  The bill is sponsored by Senators Robert F. Wagner (D., N. Y.), Allen J. Ellender (D., La.) and Robert A. Taft (R., Ohio), and is sent to the Senate Banking and Currency Committee (11/31/45 report).

November 21, 1945 – House Labor Committee reports out H. R. 32 and sends it to the House Rules Committee.

November 27, 1945 – House Rules Committee reports out H. R. 3937 and H. R. 32; both go to the floor of the House (11/31/45 report).

December 5, 1945 – House Expenditures Committee reports out S. 380 after it is completely rewritten by the Committee (and retitled the “Employment Production Act”), sending it for consideration by the full House.

December 11, 1945 – House rejects a rule for debate on H. R. 3937, effectively killing it.

December 12, 1945 – House passes H. R. 32 (the Hobbs Act) and sends it to the Senate.

December 14, 1945 – House passes a rewritten S. 380 and sends it to the Senate.

1946

January 17, 1946 – Sen. Claude Pepper (D., Fla.) introduces S. 1349, called the Pepper Minimum Wage Bill, designed to amend the Fair Labor Standard Act by increasing the minimum hourly wage to seventy-five cents and provides that no employer engaged in commerce, or the production of goods for commerce, may employ any oppressive child labor[1] in or about the enterprise (3/31/46 report).

January 17, 1946 – Senate begins consideration of S. 101; opponents of the measure start a filibuster.

February 5, 1946 – As a result of a conference between the House and the Senate, S. 380, now called the “Employment Act of 1946,” is reported out.

February 6, 1946 – House adopts the conference report on S. 380.

February 9, 1946 – Following an eighteen-day filibuster of the bill to establish a permanent FEPC, S. 101, the Senate rejects a cloture motion and the measure, displaced by other legislation, is not brought up again.

February 15, 1946 – S. 1349 was reported out of the Senate Committee on Education and Labor and goes to the Senate Rules Committee.

February 21, 1946 – House adopts a non-discriminatory amendment to H.R. 3370 (proposed legislation providing permanent authorization for the school lunch program); (the aim of the amendment was lost when it was rewritten—its final version barred funds to any states that maintained separate school systems for minority races if they did not make a just and equitable distribution of school lunch grants—essentially re-affirming the “separate but equal” doctrine). 

March 14, 1946 – S. 1349, the Pepper Minimum Wage Bill, was favorably approved by the Senate Rules Committee and was brought to the floor of the Senate (3/31/46 report).

March 27, 1946 – Sen. Richard B. Russell, Jr. (D., Ga.) proposes an amendment to S. 1349 proposing to include farm labor costs; President Truman asserts that the amendment is inflationary and that he will veto the bill if the amendment was included (3/31/46 report).

March 29, 1946 – Senate adopts Russell Amendment to S. 1349 (3/31/46 report).

April 4, 1946 – Senate adopts compromise to S. 1349 that dropped the Russell Amendment, as well as all extensions of coverage; the minimum wage was itself reduced to 60 cents an hour.

April 5, 1946 --  Sen. Russell re-submits his farm labor amendment to S. 1349 and the Senate adopts it by voice vote; S. 1349 is further amended, raising the minimum wage to sixty-five cents, and is passed by the Senate. The House fails to act on this legislation, thus killing it.

April 8, 1946  -- Senate Banking and Currency Committee reports out S. 1592, the General Housing Act of 1945, and sends it to the floor of the Senate.

April 15, 1946 -- Senate passes S. 1592, the General Housing Act of 1946,  and sends it to the House which in turn sends it to the House Banking and Currency Committee, where it dies.

June 21, 1946 – Senate passes without amendments H. R. 32, the Hobbs Act, designed to revise the 1934 Anti-Racketeering Act, which prohibited interference by violence or intimidation with the transportation or delivery of perishable farm products by a farmer or his employees to a market or processing plant. The bill is considered by many to be anti-labor as it gives the power to the federal government to interfere with strikebreakers. The bill redefines “robbery” and “extortion” to refer to almost any interference with strikebreakers as a federal crime. Nevertheless, President Truman signs it into law on July 3.

July 31, 1946 – Senate fails to provide a two-thirds majority to pass S. J. Res. 61 that proposes a constitutional amendment to ban any law denying or abridging equality of rights because of sex.

July 31, 1946 – Senate kills H. R. 7, the Marcantonio Anti-Poll Tax Bill, by filibuster.

1947

January 3, 1947 – Four resolutions—S. Res. 25, S. Res. 30, S. Res. 32, and S. Res. 39—designed to amend Senate Rule XX by ending filibusters by majority vote, are introduced in the Senate, and all are sent to the Senate Committee on Rules and Administrations (1/31/47 report).

January 3, 1947 – Rep. George H. Bender (R., Ohio) introduces H. R. 29, an anti-poll tax bill, which is referred to the House Committee on Administration.

January 3, 1947 – Rep. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (D., N.Y.) introduces H. R. 280, the Powell Anti-Jim Crow Travel bill, designed to prohibit nondiscrimination in interstate commerce; the measure is sent to the House Committee on Foreign and Interstate Commerce (2/28/47 report).

January 3, 1947 – Representative Powell also introduces H. R. 805, a civil rights bill for the District of Columbia; the measure is sent to the House Committee on the District of Columbia (4/30/47 report).

January 3, 1947 – Senate considers S. 42, an anti-lynching bill; the measure is sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee (5/31/47 report)

January 3, 1947 – Rep. Fred A. Hartley. Jr. (D., N.J.) introduces H. R. 3020, called the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947, and designed to amend the 1935 Wagner Act; the measure goes to the House Education and Labor Committee.

January 3, 1947 – Sen. Robert A. Taft (R., Ohio) introduces S. 1126, which is also designed to revise the Wagner Act, but does not have all of the same provisions in H. R. 3020; the measure goes to the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee.

January 3, 1947 – Senate considers S. 415, a bill amending the Price Control Act of 1946 (that had permitted the federal government to maintain selective economic controls over prices, rents and production quotas in order to stabilize the cost of living during World War II and for some time afterward) to increase rents by 15 percent and sends the measure to the Senate Banking and Currency Committee’s Subcommittee on Housing and Rent Control (2/28/47 report).

January 3, 1947– Senator Pepper introduces S. 94, another anti-poll tax bill; according to Leslie Perry, Pepper agreed to withdraw his bill in favor of a bipartisan one should it be introduced.

February 24, 1947 -- The Senate Banking and Currency Committee's Subcommittee on Housing and Rent Control favorably reports out S. 415, a bill designed to amend the Price Control Act of 1946, and sends it to the full Senate Banking and Currency Committee for consideration.

March 10, 1947 -- The Senate Banking and Currency Committee rejects S. 415 (3/31/47 report).

March 10, 1947 – Senators Wagner, Taft, and Ellender sponsor S. 866, which is the housing bill (S. 1592) submitted during the previous Congress. The Senate sends the measure to the Senate Banking and Currency Committee which will subsequently favorably report it out.

March 13, 1947 – House defeats anti-discrimination amendment to bill establishing joint Army-Navy nursing corps.

April 3, 1947 – Senate Banking and Currency Committee reports out S. 866; it goes to the full Senate for consideration.

April 3, 1947 – Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, after rejecting resolutions to end filibusters by a majority vote, reported out S. Res. 25, which, as amended, would require a two-thirds Senate vote to stop a filibuster.

April 11, 1947 – House Education and Labor Committee reports out H. R. 3020 (the Taft-Hartley Act).

April 14, 1947 – House begins consideration of H. R. 3020, the Labor-Management Relations Act.

April 17, 1947 – After rejecting a motion to recommit H. R. 3020, the House passes the bill.

April 17, 1947 – Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee reports out S. 1126, Senator Taft’s proposal to negatively amend the 1935 Wagner Act.

April 23, 1947 – Senate begins consideration of S. 1126.

May 13, 1947 – Senate passes a modified version of S. 1126 and sends it to the House for a conference with H. R. 3020.

May 15, 1947 – Rep. Clifford P. Case, Jr. (R., N. J.) introduces H. R. 3488, an anti-lynching bill; the measure is sent to the House Judiciary Committee (5/31/47 report).

May 26, 1947 – Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglas (D., Cal.) introduces H. R. 3618, an anti-lynching bill identical to that of Congressman Case’s (5/31/47 report).

May 27, 1947 – Senate considers S. 1352, an anti-lynching bill and sends it to the Senate Judiciary Committee (5/31/47 report).

June 4, 1947 – House agrees to conference report on H. R. 3020, the Taft-Hartley Act.

June 6, 1947 – Senate agrees to conference report on H. R. 3020.

June 20, 1947 – The House overrides President Truman’s veto of H.R. 3020.

June 23, 1947 – Senate overrides President Truman’s veto and the measure—the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, or, less formally, the Taft-Hartley Act-- becomes law.

July 15, 1947 – House considers H. R. 3814, a bill to appropriate $5 million to establish a black veterans’ hospital; the measure is sent to the House Labor and Education Committee.

July 21, 1947 -- House passes H. R. 29, the Bender Anti-Poll Tax bill, and sends it to the Senate.

July 22, 1947 – Senate subcommittee of the Committee of Labor and Public Welfare reported out (without recommendation) to the full committee S. 984 (“The National Act Against Discrimination in Employment”), calling for a permanent FEPC.

July 22, 1947 – House passes H. R. 3814 and sends it to the Senate, where it was referred to the Senate Public Welfare and Labor Committee (1/31/48 report)

July 26, 1947 – S. 866 is shunted aside in favor of the creation of the creation (H. Con. Res. 104) of a joint committee, headed by Rep. Ralph A. Gamble (R., N. Y.) and Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (R., Wis.) to make a broad study of the housing situation in the United States.

1948

January 5, 1948 – House considers H. R. 6959, a long-range housing bill without public housing or urban redevelopment features, sending it to the House Banking and Currency Committee.

February 5, 1948 – Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare reports out S. 984 to the full Senate, but no further action was taken.
February 5, 1948 – H. J. Res. 334, called the “Southern Educational Compact” and giving Congressional consent to a scheme where seven southern states agreed to pool their resources to establish and maintain regional educational institutions in “professional, technological, scientific, literary and other fields,” is sent to the House Judiciary Committee.

February 25, 1948 – House Judiciary Subcommittee favorably reported out H. R. 3488 (the Case Anti-Lynching Bill) and sends it to the full committee) (2/28/48 report).

February 27, 1948 – Senate subcommittee of the Committee on Rules and Administration favorably reports H. R. 29 to the full committee.

March 15, 1948 – Gamble-McCarthy Committee, after holding extensive hearings, issues a report. The recommendations in the report closely follow the stipulations found in S. 866.

March 16, 1948  -- H. J. Res. 334 is favorably reported out by the House Judiciary Committee and sent to the full House.

March 25, 1948 – House Judiciary Committee, after striking out three sections reports out H. R. 3488 (the Case Anti-Lynching Bill) and sends it to the full House. It never came to a vote.

April 9, 1948 – Representatives Karl E. Mundt (R., S.D.) and Richard M. Nixon (R., Cal.) sponsor H. R. 5852, requiring the registration of all Communist-front organizations and their officers and all Communist political organizations and their members.  The measure is sent to the House Un-American Activities Committee.

April 9, 1948 – House considers H. R. 6959, a long-range housing bill without public housing or urban redevelopment features, sending the measure to the House Banking and Currency Committee.

April 13, 1948 – S. J. Res. 191, a companion bill to H. J. Res. 334, was reported out by the Senate Judiciary Committee and sent to the full Senate.

April 21, 1948 – House rejects anti-discrimination amendment to S. 1841, a bill establishing women’s units as a permanent part of the Army and Navy (4/30/48 report)

April 22, 1948 – Senate passes S. 866 after defeating a motion to eliminate public housing and sends the measure to the House, where it is sent to the House Rules Committee and will die.

April 27, 1948 – House Committee on Rules granted a rule on H. J. Res. 334 and sends it to the floor of the House.

April 29, 1948 – House Judiciary Committee reports out H. R. 6396, authorizing the admission of 200,000 displaced persons in refugee camps or occupied zones who had entered Germany, Italy or Austria before April 21, 1947, and sends it to the full House.

April 30, 1948—Senate Committee on Rules and Administration favorably reports out H. R. 29, the Bender Anti-Poll Tax Bill, and sends it to the full Senate.

April 30, 1948 – House Un-American Activities Committee reports out H. R. 5852 (the Mundt-Nixon Registration Bill) and sends it to the full House.

May 4, 1948 – House passes H. J. Res. 334 and sends it to the Senate.

May 6, 1948—House District of Columbia Committee reports out a proposal for home rule for the District of Columbia; the measure provides for an elective council-manager government. The measure dies on the House floor.

May 13, 1948 – Senate recommits S. J. Res. 191 to the Judiciary Committee, effectively killing it and its companion bill, H. J. Res. 334.

May 19, 1948 – House passes H. R. 5852 (the Mundt-Nixon Registration Bill) and sends it to the Senate, where no action is taken.

May 27, 1948 – Senate Judiciary Committee reports out S. 2242, a bill controlling the number of war refugees allowed to enter the United States, after amending it to increase the number of refugees to 200,000 persons who had entered Germany, Italy or Austria before December 22, 1945 (excluding many Jewish displaced persons who had fled Poland in 1946), and sends it to the full Senate.

June 2, 1948 –Senate passes S. 2242.

June 7, 1948 – The Senate adopts an amendment to the Selective Service Act of 1948 (H. R. 6401) that bars payment of the poll tax by servicemen, while tabling others that would have barred segregation in the Armed Forces, and made the lynching of servicemen a federal offense.

June 7, 1948 – Senate Judiciary Committee reports out S. 2860, or the Ferguson Anti-Lynching bill, but it does not come to a vote in the Senate.

June 9, 1948 – Senate rejects an amendment to H. R. 6401, the Selective Service Act of 1948 that would have permitted draftees or enlistees a choice of serving in racially segregated units.

June 11, 1948—House passes H. R. 6396, and sends it to the Senate for concurrence.

June 17, 1948 – House adopts an amendment to the Selective Service Act of 1948 barring the payment of poll taxes by servicemen; this amendment would remain in the bill as it was finally enacted.

June 18, 1948 – House passes H. R. 6959 and sends it to the Senate.

June 18, 1948 – During the conference on the Displaced Persons bills (S. 2242 and H.R. 6396), conferees combine both bills, providing for the admission of 200,000 displaced persons who had entered Western zones before December 22, 1945, and send the report to the House, where it is approved after a motion by Rep. Emanuel Celler (D., N.Y.) to recommit the bill to conference is defeated.

June 19, 1948 – Senate approves the report and, five days later, President Truman reluctantly signs the Displaced Persons Act into law.

July 28, 1948 –Senate begins consideration of H. R. 29, the Bender Anti-Poll Tax Bill; Sen. Carl T. Hayden (D., Az.) proposes an amendment striking out all except the enacting clause of H.R. 29 and substitutes a resolution to bar the poll tax by constitutional amendment.

July 29, 1948-- Filibuster by Southern senators on H.R. 29 starts.

August 2, 1948 – Twenty-one Senators signed off on a cloture petition designed to break the filibuster holding up consideration of H.R. 29; however, a point of order was made that it wasn’t applicable as it was on a pending motion rather than a pending measure; this point of order was upheld by a ruling by Sen. Arthur H. Vandenberg (R., Mich.), sitting as president pro tempore of the Senate, stating that no limit could be imposed on debate by the Senate on a formal motion to take up a measure; a limit could only be supplied “upon any pending measure,” thus killing H.R. 29.

August 6, 1948 – Senate passes H.R. 6959 and sends it to the House for concurrence.

August 7, 1948 – House passes H.R. 6959 and sends it to President Truman for his signature; on August 10^th, he signs it into law as the Housing Act of 1948.

August 8, 1948 – Senate votes to adjourn.

1949

January 3, 1949 – House considers H. R. 4567, incorporating a number of changes in the Displaced Persons Act at twe request  of the Truman Administration. The bill is sent to the House Judiciary Committee.

January 5, 1949 – Senate considers three housing bills: S. 138, representing the Truman Administration, sponsored by Sen. Allen Ellender (D., La.) and Sen. Robert F. Wagner (D., N.Y.), among others; S. 709, representing the Republican party, sponsored by Sen. Robert A. Taft (R., Ohio), among others; and S. 757, sponsored by Sen. John W. Bricker (R., Ohio) and Sen. Harry Pulliam Cain (R., Washington); all three bills are sent to the Senate Banking and Currency Committee.

January 5, 1949 – Senate considers S. J. Res. 2, sponsored by Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge (R., Mass.), calling for the election of the President and the Vice-President by direct vote. The bill is sent tot the Senate Judiciary Committee.

January 5, 1949 – House considers H. J. Res. 2, sponsored by Rep. Ed Lee Gossett (D., Texas), which is identical to the Senate proposal sponsored by Senator Lodge.  The bill is sent to the House Judiciary Committee.

 

January 24, 1949 – Senate Committee on Rules and Administration holds hearings on resolutions amending the rules covering unlimited debate; Sen. Francis J. Myers (D., Pa.) and Sen. Wayne Morse (R., Ore.) introduces S. Res. 11, and S. Res. 12, respectively, designed to shut off debate by majority vote; Sen. Carl T. Hayden (D., Az.) and Sen. Kenneth Wherry (R., Neb.) sponsored S. Res. 15, which sought to impose cloture by a two-thirds vote requirement.

February 1, 1949 – The Displaced Persons Commission reports to Congress, stating that the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 was “all but unworkable.”

February 17, 1949 – Housing Subcommittee of the Senate Banking and Currency Committee reports out S. 1070 and sends it to the full committee.

February 17, 1949 – Senate Committee on Rules and Administration reports out S. Res. 15, the Hayden-Wherry resolution, after defeating the Myers-Morse substitute.

February 23, 1949 –Senate Banking and Currency Committee holds hearings on the housing bills and produces S. 1070, a committee bill with the bipartisan support of a number of senators including Senators Taft, Ellender and Wagner; the bill, officially called the Housing Act of 1949, includes provisions covering slum clearance and public housing.  The measure is sent to the Housing Subcommittee of the Banking and Currency Committee for hearings.

February 25, 1949 – Senate Banking and Currency Committee report outs S. 1070 and send it to the full Senate.

February 28, 1949 – Senate brings S.  Res. 15 to the floor, where the motion to take up the resolution is filibustered for the next two weeks.

March 1, 1949 – House passes H. R. 199, establishing quotas for the admission of Japanese, Koreans and Polynesians, as well as making the natives of those areas already in the United States eligible for citizenship. Senate takes no action on this legislation.

March 11, 1949 – Vice President Alben W. Barkley (D., Ky.), as president of the Senate, overturns the Vandenberg cloture ruling (see above, August 2, 1948)

March 12, 1949 – Senate overturns the Barkley ruling, reaffirming the Vandenberg ruling.

March 17, 1949 – After agreeing that debate would be solely on S. Res. 15, the filibuster is ended and subsequently the resolution is passed.

March 23, 1949 – Senate considers S. 1527, a home rule bill for the District of Columbia calling for an elective council-manager government. The bill is sent to the Senate District of Columbia Committee, where it will subsequently be favorably reported out and sent to the full Senate.

March 23, 1949 – Senate considers S. 1365, a home rule bill for the District of Columbia. This, too, is sent to the Senate District of Columbia Committee, where it will die.

March 28, 1949 – House passes legislation calling for a sales tax for the District of Columbia and sends the measure to the Senate (3/31/49 report) where no action was taken.

April 4, 1949 – House adopts a nonsegregation amendment to a measure creating a Coast Guard Women’s Reserve, and then recommits the measure, effectively killing it.

April 21, 1949 – Senate rejects nondiscrimination amendment and nonsegregation amendment to S. 1070, the Housing Act of 1949; the bill subsequently passes the Senate (5/31/49 report).

April 29, 1949 – House rejects a nondiscrimination amendment to a bill designed to repeal the Taft-Hartley Act.

May 5, 1949 – House considers H. R. 4453, a compulsory FEPC bill proposed by Rep. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (D., N.Y.) and sends it to the House Committee on Education and Labor.

May 5, 1949 -- Senate passes S. 246, the Thomas Federal Aid to Education Bill; this required states “where separate public schools are maintained for minority races” to provide “just and equitable apportionment” of such funds for the segregated schools. The bill is sent to the House but dies there due to a conflict over the granting of funds to parochial schools.

May 12, 1949 – Home Banking and Currency Committee reports out H.R. 4009, a companion bill to S. 1070, the Housing Act of 1949.

May 14, 1949 – Senate Majority Leader Scott W. Lucas (D., Ill.) announces that the Truman Administration would not seek a vote on any civil rights or social welfare legislation during the current congressional session.

May 16, 1949 – House Judiciary Committee reports out H.R. 4567 and sends it to the full House.

May 23, 1949 –  A subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee favorably reports out S.J. Res. 34, a proposal to abolish the poll tax by constitutional amendment, to the full committee.

May 31, 1949 – Senate rejects amendments to S. 1527 that would have required a majority referendum for adoption of anti-segregation ordinances in the District of Columbia; the bill is subsequently passed and sent to the House, where it goes to the House District of Columbia Committee; although a subcommittee holds hearings on the measure, there is no further action taken.

May 31, 1949 – Senate also rejected an amendment to S. 1365 that would have required ultimate congressional approval of the abolition of racial segregation in the District of Columbia, even though abolition be decreed by referendum and by appropriate action by the city council; the bill is subsequently passed and sent to the House (5/31/49 report)

June 2, 1949 – House passes H. R. 4567, and sends it to the Senate, where it goes to the Judiciary Committee.

June 6, 1949 – Senate Judiciary Committee reports out S. 91, an anti-lynching bill, but the measure fails to reach the floor of the Senate.

June 6, 1949 – Senate Judiciary Committee votes to table S. J. Res. 34.

June 14, 1949 – House Rules Committee releases H. R. 4009 and sends it to the full House.

June 24, 1949 -- House Administration Committee reports out Norton Anti Poll Tax bill (H. R. 3199) and sends it to the full House.

June 29, 1949 – House rejects nondiscrimination amendment to Housing Act of 1949.

June 30, 1949 – Senate Judiciary Committee reports out S. J. Res. 2, legislation calling for the election of the President and the Vice-President by direct vote, and sends it to the floor of the Senate.

July 8, 1949 – Conference report for the Housing Act of 1949 is agreed to by both houses and sent to President Truman who signs it into law on July 15.

July 21, 1949 – House Judiciary Committee reports out H. J. Res. 2, which is legislation identical to S. J. Res. 1 (see above, June 30), and sends it to the House Rules Committee.

July 26, 1949 – House passes H. R. 3199 and sends it to the Senate; it is sent to the Senate Rules Committee, where it will die.

July 27, 1949 – House defeats motion to recommit to conference the Military Housing Act of 1949 because it does not contain a nonsegregation clause.

August 2, 1949 – House Educational and Labor Committee reports out H. R. 4453, a compulsory FEPC bill, and sends it to the House Rules Committee.

October 7, 1949 – Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee reports out S. 1728, a compulsory FEPC bill identical to H. R. 4453, without recommendation, sending it to the full Senate.

October 12, 1949 – Senate Judiciary Committee reports out H. R. 4567 without recommendation.

October 15, 1949 – Senate recommits H. R. 4567 to the Judiciary Committee, with instructions to report back by January 25, 1950.

1950

January 25, 1950 – Senate passes S. J. Res. 25, a proposed constitutional amendment guaranteeing equal rights for women. The House took no action on the measure.

January 25, 1950 – Senate Judiciary Committee reports out a revised version of H. R. 4567; in a minority report, Senators Harley W. Kilgore (D., W.Va.) and Homer S. Ferguson (R., Mich.), along with Senator Frank P. Graham (D., N. C.), attacked the changes made by the committee and submitted a substitute more in line with the House’s version of H. R. 4567, designed to liberalize the Displaced Persons Act of 1948.

February 22, 1950 – Supporters of H. R. 4453, after several attempts to get it out of the House Rules Committee, bring it to the House floor under Calendar Wednesday procedures.

February 23, 1950 – House approves a substitute amendment (H. R. 6841) to H. R. 4453, providing for a voluntary FEPC without enforcement powers, and subsequently passes the watered-down bill.

February 28, 1950 – Senate begins debate on H. R. 4567.

March 20, 1950 – House Public Lands Commission reports out H. R. 2988, providing for a Resident Commissioner (non-voting congressional representative for the United States Virgin Islands and the measure is sent to the House Rules Committee, where it dies.

 

March 20, 1950 – Rep. Jacob Javits (R., N. Y.) objects to unanimous consent for House consideration of H. R. 7185, a bill proposing to open examinations for apprenticeships in the Bureau of Engraving, Department of Treasury to military veterans throughout the United States; this would have discriminated against blacks who had been successful in forcing the Bureau of Engraving to admit them to apprentice examinations (April 1950 report).

March 21, 1950 – Senate Judiciary Committee reports out S. 2311, the Mundt-Ferguson Communist Registration Bill (also known as the Subversive Activities Control bill), and sends it to the full Senate. This bill, originally introduced in 1948 by Sen. Karl Mundt (R., S. D.) and Sen. Richard Nixon (R., Cal.), calls for all members of the Communist Party of the United States to register their names with the United States Attorney General.

 

March 22, 1950 – House rejects nondiscrimination amendment to Housing Act of 1950.

April 5, 1950 – After extensive debate on proposed amendments to H. R. 4567, Senate passes the Kilgore-Ferguson substitute to the Displaced Persons Act and sends it to the House for concurrence with H. R. 4567 (April 1950 report).

April 11, 1950 – House rejects nondiscrimination amendment to Housing Act of 1950.

May 10, 1950 –- House rejects amendments to the omnibus fiscal 1951 appropriations bill that would have barred use of appropriations to finance programs that discriminated persons on account of race or creed.

May 19, 1950— A Senate cloture vote that would have supported a motion to consider S. 1728, that provided for a compulsory FEPC, fails.

June 6, 1950 – Conference report on H. R. 4567 agreed to by Senate.

June 7, 1950 – House agrees to conference report on H. R. 4567, and sends it on to President Truman who signs it into law on June 16.

June 21, 1950 – Senate eliminates a provision in the Selective Service Extension Act of 1950 that would have given inductees and volunteers a choice of serving in racially segregated units.  It also rejects an amendment that would have required segregation if a majority of men from thirty-six states preferred it.

June 30, 1950 –House rejects nondiscrimination and non-segregation amendments to the Selective Service Extension Act of 1950 after Rep. Carl Vinson (D., Ga.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee stated that progress was being made under President Truman’s executive order to break down segregation barriers.

July 12, 1950 – A second cloture vote concerning S. 1728 also fails.

July 17, 1950 – House rejects a motion by Rep. Gossett to suspend the rules of the House Rules Committee and bring H.J. Res. 2 to the floor of the House (8/31/50 report).

August 17, 1950 – Senate Judiciary Committee reports out an amended version of S. 4037 that includes provisions of other internal security measures including S. 2311, the Mundt-Ferguson bill, and sends it to the full Senate.

September 5, 1950 – S. 4037 reaches the Senate floor.

September 12, 1950 – Senate passes S. 4037.

September 23, 1950  -- Senate and the House overrides President Truman’s veto of S. 4037 and the International Security Act (less formally known as the McCarran Act), becomes law.

December 11, 1950 – Senate tables a nondiscrimination amendment to the Railway Labor Act (S. 3295).

1951

January 1, 1951 – House defeats motion to recommit the Railway Labor Act with instructions to insert an anti-discrimination and states rights amendment.

January 4, 1951 – Senate considers S. 349, Defense Housing and Community Facilities Services Act of 1951.

January 4, 1951 – Senate considers S. J. Res. 52, Senator Lodge’s measure calling for the election of the President and Vice-President by direct vote, and sends it to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

January 4, 1951 – House considers H. J. Res. 19, Congressman Gossett’s measure calling for electing the President and the Vice President by direct vote, and sends it to the House Judiciary Committee.

January 10, 1951 – Railway Labor Act is signed into law.

January 18, 1951– Senate considers S. 1976, a home rule bill for the District of Columbia, calling for a mayor, appointed by the President; a District Council and a non-voting delegate to the House, elected by residents of the District. The measure is sent to the Senate District Committee.

April 12, 1951 – House strikes out a provision of the Universal Military Training and Service Act that would have given draftees a choice of serving in racially segregated or integrated units.

April 19, 1951 – Senate rejects nondiscrimination amendments to S. 349 (8/31/51 report); subsequently the Senate passes S. 349 and sends it to the House.

June 6, 1951 – House kills legislation (H. R. 3814) calling for the construction of a veterans’ hospital for blacks in Franklin County, Virginia.

July 30, 1951 – Senate Judiciary Committee reports out S. J. Res. 52, but no further action is taken on the measure.

August 6, 1951 – Senate District Committee reports out S. 1976.

August 15, 1951 – House passes S. 349 and sends it back to the Senate for a conference.

August 20, 1951 – Conference report on S. 349 is agreed to by the Senate and the House agrees to the report the next day. President Truman signs the act into law on September 1^st.

October 9, 1951 – Rep. Francis E. Walter (D., Pa.) introduces H.R. 5678, the Immigration Nationality Bill, or the Walter Immigration Bill, designed (in part) to restrict immigration to the United States by a quota system.

October 17, 1951 – House Judiciary Committee reports out H. J. Res. 19, but no further action is taken on the measure.

October 23, 1951 – Senate Committee on Rules and Administration closes hearings on S. Res. 41, S. Res. 52, S. Res. 105, and S. Res. 203.

1952

January 1, 1952 – Sen. Pat McCarran (R., Nev.) sponsors S. 2055, a bill that would control immigration to the United States and the status of naturalized American citizens. The bill is sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

January 22, 1952—Senate passes S. 1976 and sends it to the House.

January 23, 1952 – House

January 27, 1952 – House considers S. 1976 and sends it to the House District of Columbia Committee; the Committee fails to approve the bill.

January 29, 1952 – Senate Judiciary Committee reports out S. 2550, a revised version of S. 2055, despite a minority report claiming that it “would inject new racial discrimination into our law, establish many new vague and highly abusable requirements for admission, impede the admission of refugees from totalitarian oppression, incorporate into law vague standards for deportation and denaturalization, and deprive persons within our borders of fundamental judicial protections.”

February 14, 1952—House Judiciary Committee reports out H. R. 5678, the Walter Immigration Bill.

March 21, 1952 – Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr. (D., Minn.) and twelve other senators sponsor S. 2842, a bill proposed as a substitute for S. 2550, the McCarran Immigration Bill.

April 25, 1952 – House passes H. R. 5678, the Walter Immigration Bill.

May 7, 1952  -- Senate rejects Sen. Humphrey’s motion to recommit S. 2550 to the senate Judiciary in order to hold hearings on S. 2842.

May 22, 1952 – Senate passes S. 2550, the McCarran Immigration bill, and gives it the number of the House-passed immigration bill, H. R. 5678; the measure is sent to the House for concurrence.

June 10, 1952 – House accepts the conference report on H.R. 5678.

June 11, 1952 – Senate accepts the conference report on H.R. 5678 and the bill goes to President Truman, who vetoes it on June 25.

June 24, 1952 – Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee approves S. 3368, designed to create an Equality of Opportunity in Employment Commission with enforcement powers, and sends it to the floor of the Senate, where it dies.

June 26, 1952 –House overrides President Truman’s veto and passes the McCarran-Walter Immigration bill. The next day, the Senate follows suit and the bill becomes law over the President’s veto.

July 1, 1952 – Senate Judiciary Committee reported out S. J. Res. 127, calling for a constitutional amendment lowering the voting age to 18, but the measure was not taken up on the floor.

1953

January 5, 1953 – Sen. Everett M. Dirksen (R., Ill.) introduces S. 1, an attempt to set up an FEPC without enforcement powers. The bill is referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee where it dies.

January 7, 1953 – Sen. John W. Bricker (R., Ohio) introduces S. J. Res. 1, a proposed constitutional amendment limiting the treaty-making power of the President. Some of the measure’s supporters contend that this legislation is necessary to halt civil rights advances in the United States, as it would have prevented Congress from passing social legislation—such as civil rights bills—on the basis of carrying out the obligations of a treaty.

January 11, 1953 – Senate begins consideration of S. 697, giving the District of Columbia a non-voting delegate to the House and S. 999, another home rule proposal; both measures are sent to the Senate District Committee.

January 11, 1953 – Senator Ives introduces S. 1831, an amendment to the Taft-Hartley Act prohibiting discrimination and segregation in unions under the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board. The measure is sent to the Senate Labor Committee, but the legislation that eventually is reported out does not include a nondiscrimination amendment.

January 28, 1953 – Senators Irving M. Ives (R., N.Y.) and Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr. (D., Minn.) introduce S. 692, the Federal Equality of Opportunity in Employment Act; this is an attempt to set up a strong FEPC, with enforcement powers.

March 4, 1953 –  Senate District Committee approves (but does not report out) S. 999.

March 4, 1953 – Senate District Committee reports out S. 697.

March 11, 1953 – Senate passes S. 697 and sends it to the House; it is sent to the House District of Columbia Committee, where it is tabled.

March 18, 1953—House passes H. J. Res. 223, endorsing the creation of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and sends the bill to the Senate for consideration.

March 30, 1953 – Senate, by voice vote, passes H.  J. Res. 223, approving the establishment of a Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and President Eisenhower signs the measure on April 1 to take effect on April 11.

July 15, 1953 – Senate Judiciary Committee reports out S. J. Res. 1.

July 16, 1953 – Senate passes S. J. Res. 49, a proposed constitutional amendment to guarantee equal rights for women. No action is taken on this measure in the House.

1954

January 21, 1954 – Senate begins consideration of S. 2672, the Ives-Butler Anti-Jim Crow Travel Bill, designed to prohibit segregation or discrimination in interstate travel and sends it to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. About the same time, the House begins consideration of H.R. 7304, a companion bill to S. 2672.

January 21, 1954 – Senate begins consideration of S. 1611 providing for primary elections in the District of Columbia by which District residents could elect Democratic and Republican National Committeemen and delegates to Presidential conventions.

January 21, 1954 – Senate considers S. 2601, a school construction bill, and sends it to the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. Once the committee reports out S. 2601, it goes to the full Senate. Once the “separate but equal” language in S. 2601 is struck out, the measure passes and is sent to the House, where no action is taken.

January 22, 1954 – The Constitutional Amendments Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee reported out S. J. Res. 53, a proposed amendment making 18 the legal voting age, but the measure was not reported by the full committee.

February 26, 1954 – Senate defeats S. J. Res. 1.

April 2, 1954 – House defeats nondiscrimination amendments to H. R. 7839, the Omnibus Housing Act of 1954.

April 28, 1954 – Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee reports S. 692, designed to prohibit discrimination in employment, but the measure does not reach the floor.

May 21, 1954 – Senate rejects S. J. Res. 53, a proposed constitutional amendment designed to give the vote to eighteen year olds.

June 3, 1954 – Senate rejects a motion to delete the public housing feature of the Omnibus Housing Act of 1954 in light of the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

June 14, 1954 – Senate passes S. 3378, designed to revise the Organic Act of the Virgin Islands and sends it to the House for consideration.

June 22, 1954 – Rep. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (D., N.Y.) successfully leads a fight to amend S. 3378 so that the governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands obtain the approval of the Island’s legislature before putting reorganization plans into effect, and the bill subsequently passes the House.

June 22, 1954 – S. 3378 goes into conference and the Powell Amendment is further amended so the governor is given the power to reorganize the present executive branch in the Islands without the legislature’s consent, but in future, all reorganization must be done with the consent of the legislature. The measure with the amendment is approved and is subsequently signed into law. (8/31/54 report)

July 10, 1954 – Senate passes S. 1611 and sends it to the House.

July 12, 1954 – Senate passes H. R. 8149, designed to amend the Hospital Survey and Construction Act provisions of the Public Health Service even though it includes no nondiscrimination or nonsegregation provisions.

July 23, 1954 – House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee reports out H. R. 7304, designed to prohibit segregation or discrimination in interstate transportation; the bill is sent to the House Rules Committee, where its chairman, Rep. Leo E. Allen (R., Ill.), according to Clarence Mitchell, “told his constituents that he could not act on the bill because the leadership of the House thought it was too late in the session.” In the Senate, consideration of S. 2672, the companion bill to H.R. 7304, is stalled because the Senate refuses to act until the House passes H.R. 7304.

July 26, 1954 – House Rules Committee tables a request for a rule to send to conference H. R. 3575, which is legislation calling for statehood for Hawaii and Alaska.

August 9, 1954 – House passes S. 1611, but President Eisenhower vetoes the bill, claiming that the provision allowing federal employees to engage in partisan political activity amended the Hatch Act, which bars such activity.

August 9, 1954 – Attempts to have the House rules suspended so that H. R. 7304 can be voted on and passed are to no avail; thus, Congress adjourns without any action being taken on either H.R. 7304 or its companion S. 2672.

1955

January 5, 1955 – In response to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s ruling that struck down portions of the Pennsylvania Sedition Act in the case of Pennsylvania v. Nelson, Rep. Howard W. Smith (D., Va.) introduces H. R. 3, stating that the federal government had preempted that field by the enactment of the 1940 Smith Act. H. R. 3, barred “preemption by implication” on the part of the federal government where state law was concerned, and federal laws were to be construed as intended to invalidate state laws only if Congress had stated specifically that it wished to preempt a field of legislation from state law and jurisdiction. H.R. 3 also specifically ruled out the preemption of state authority in the field of subversion, thus directly reversing the Nelson decision.

May 19, 1955 – In the face of opposition to an amendment requiring the ending of segregation in National Guard Units as a condition for participating in the National Reserve Training program, the House votes to cease consideration of (H. R. 5297) the program.  (n. 4, 6/6/55 report) 

May 19, 1955 – Over the NAACP’s strong opposition, the Senate Judiciary Committee reports out S. J. 31 (the resolution sponsored by Senator Hubert H. Humphrey [D., Minn.] and Rep. Price Daniel [D., Tex]), which would divide each state’s votes for president and vice president in the Electoral College in proportion to the popular vote received by the respective candidates. (A similar bill sponsored by Congressman Ed Gossett (D., Tex.) was defeated in a previous congress on July 17, 1950 as a result of the NAACP’s strong opposition).  The House took no action on this measure (9/8/55 report). Report of the Executive Secretary June 13, 1955.

May 20, 1955—House begins consideration of H. R. 191, providing for primary elections of party National Committeemen, delegates and alternates to national Presidential nominating conventions, and local party committee officials.

May 23, 1955—House passes H. R. 191 and sends it to the Senate.

May 25, 1955 -- The Senate Judiciary Committee began consideration of a resolution introduced by Senator James O. Eastland (D., Miss.) that called for the investigation of the Supreme Court. The resolution is strongly opposed by the NAACP and the resolution itself was not acted on (Report of the Executive Secretary to the Board for the Month of May, 1955. 6/13/55 report).

June 29, 1955 – Senate passes a bill (S. 669) to give Home Rule to the District of Columbia, providing for an elected mayor and city council, as well as a non-voting delegate to the House. No action on this measure was taken in the House. (9/8/55 report)  

July 12, 1955 – Senate passes H. R. 191, which is subsequently signed into law by President Eisenhower on August 2.

July 14, 1955 -- Senate passes the Reserve Training Bill; it subsequently dies in the House. – (9/8/55 report)

July 18, 1955 – House passes Social Security Bill designed to revise and expand provisions of the Social Security Act, including reducing the age of eligibility for women from 65 to 62. No action on this measure is taken by the Senate. – (9/8/55 report)

July 20, 1955 -- On the floor of the Senate, Senator Thomas C. Hennings, Jr. (D., Mo.) offers an amendment that removes the repeal feature from H. R. 4048, a bill to provide a standard system of absentee voting and to encourage states to extend absentee voting. One of its features repeals Sections 301 and 302 of Title 50, U.S. Code, which provides that in time of war servicemen would be relieved of the requirements of paying poll taxes and registering under state laws. The bill with this repeal provision in it had passed the House and had been reported favorably by the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. The Hennings amendment is adopted and the bill is passed (9/8/55 report).

July 29, 1955 – House defeats an anti-segregation amendment to a Housing bill. (9/8/55 report)

July 29, 1955  – House defeats an anti-segregation amendment to a school construction bill (9/8/55 report)

1956

March 12, 1956 – 82 Southern congressmen, led by Rep. Howard W. Smith (D., Va.), and 19 Southern senators, led by Sen. Walter F. George (D., Ga.), present a “Declaration of Constitutional Principles” (otherwise known as the “Southern Manifesto”), criticizing the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

March 21, 1956 -- House Judiciary Subcommittee No. 2 reports out H. R. 627, introduced by Rep. Emanuel Celler (D., N.Y.)

March 27, 1956 – Senate  recommits S.  J. 31 to the Judiciary Committee, effectively killing it (4/5/56 report)

April 9, 1956 – Justice Department submits to Congress a draft civil rights program calling for: (a) a six-member, bipartisan commission to investigate civil rights grievances; (b) creation of the Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department headed by an assistant Attorney General; (c) authority for the federal government to use civil procedures for the protection of civil rights, and (d) broader statutes to protect voting rights, including civil remedies for enforcement, and (e) designed to carry out President Eisenhower’s civil rights recommendations.

May 21, 1956 – House Judiciary Committee reports out H. R. 627—the original wording of Rep. Celler’s bill was changed to that of the draft program submitted by the Justice Department (7/9/56 report)

May 24, 1956 – Senate defeats amendment proposed by Sen. John Bricker (R-Ohio) to cut number of proposed public housing units (8/31/56 report)

June 27, 1956 – House Rules Committee grants an open rule on H. R. 627.

July 3, 1956 – House Judiciary Committee reports out H. R. 3 with an amendment that specifically restricts its application to state sedition laws, in light of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Pennsylvania v. Nelson  (350 US 497) where the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania convicted a labor activist on a state sedition charge; however, the court overturned the state’s ruling, having determined that existing federal law preempted the state act, making the state law invalid. This additional amendment, solely designed to deal with questions arising from the result in the Nelson case, attempted to nullify Supreme Court decisions that held state sedition laws were preempted by federal law.

July 5, 1956 – House approves anti-segregation amendment to school construction bill, but subsequently defeats the bill (8/31/56 report)

July 10, 1956 – House Rules Committee grants an open rule with two hours of debate on H. R. 3, but the measure was not called up on the floor, thus killing it.

July 16, 1956 – Senate confirms nomination of U. S. Solicitor General Simon E. Sobeloff as judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (8/31/56 report)

July 17, 1956 – Senate approves amendments to the Social Security Act lowering women’s age of eligibility to 62 and that of the totally disabled to 50; Senate then approves Social Security Act (Report 8/31/56)

July 23, 1956 – House passes Civil Rights Bill (H. R. 627) (8/31/56 report).

July 24, 1956 – Assigned the Civil Rights Bill (H. R. 627), the Senate Judiciary Committee fails to act on it. Because the Senate is nearing adjournment, the bill could be acted on only if the Senate adopted a motion to discharge the Judiciary Committee from its further consideration. The parliamentary situation requires that a motion to adjourn be adopted to make this possible. Sen. Paul H. Douglas (D., Ill.), offers this motion, but it is defeated and the bill dies in committee.  (8/31/56 report)

1957

February 4, 1957 –- Subcommittee No. 5 of the House Judiciary Committee begins hearings on civil rights.

February 27, 1957 – After holding hearings on civil rights, Subcommittee No. 5 of the House Judiciary Committee approves Civil Rights Bill (H. R. 6127) and sends it to the full committee.

March 12, 1957 – House considers H. R. 7999, calling for Alaska statehood, and sends the bill to the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee.

April 1, 1957 -- House Judiciary Committee reports out Civil Rights Bill (H. R. 6127) and sends it to the House Rules Committee.

April 3, 1957 -- House defeats anti-segregation amendment to hospital construction bill (12/31/57 report)

May 21, 1957 – House Rules Committee sends Civil Rights Bill (H. R. 6127) to the House floor

May 29, 1957 – House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee reports out H. R. 7999 and sends it to the House Rules Committee.

June 5, 1957 –   House starts debate on Civil Rights Bill (H. R. 6127) (6/7/57 report)

June 14, 1957 -- House defeats jury trial amendment to Civil Rights Bill (H. R. 6127) (9/6/57 report)

June 18, 1957 – House passes Civil Rights Bill (H. R. 6127)

June 20, 1957  -- Senate receives the Civil Rights Bill (H. R. 6127) and Senators Paul H. Douglas (D., Ill.) and William F. Knowland (R., Cal.) plan to place the bill immediately on the Senate calendar (bypassing the Senate Judiciary Committee) where it could be called up by majority vote at any time. When a motion is made to refer the bill to the Judiciary Committee, Sen.  Knowland objects; Sen. Richard B. Russell, Jr. (D., Ga.) raised a point of order against the objection; however, the point of order was rejected by majority vote and the bill was placed on the calendar (9/6/57 report)

July 16, 1957 – Senate proceeds to consideration of Civil Rights Bill (H. R. 6127)

July 25, 1957  -- House defeats anti-segregation amendment to school bill (H. R. 1) (12/31/57 report)

August 1, 1957 – Senate votes to remove Part III from H. R. 6127; this measure calls for the U.S. Attorney General to initiate suits seeking court injunctions against anyone who deprives (or is about to deprive) any person of any civil right (9/6/57 report)

August 1, 1957 – Senate approves jury trial amendment to H. R. 6127 (9/6/57 report).

August 7, 1957 – Senate passes amended Civil Rights Bill (H. R. 6127) and returns it to the House for concurrence with the Senate amendments to the bill.

August 27, 1957 – After adding on a substitute jury-trial amendment to the Senate jury trial amendments, House passes Civil Rights Bill (H. R. 6127) and returns it to the Senate for concurrence with the House amendment to the bill.

August 28, 1957 – Sen. Strom Thurmond (D., S.C.), in an attempt to delay the final passage of the Civil Rights Bill, speaks for 24 hours and 18 minutes without help from any other Senate member, setting a record for a filibuster as Clarence Mitchell watches from the gallery.

August 29, 1957 – Senate passes amended Civil Rights Bill (H. R. 6127­) (9/6/57 report).

September 9, 1957 -- President Eisenhower signs into law the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Originally proposed by Attorney General Herbert Brownell, the Act marks the first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government undertakes significant legislative action to protect civil rights.

1958

February 10, 1958 – Sen. Douglas introduces S. 3257, entitled the “Civil Rights Act of 1958.” (3/6/58 report.)

January 20, 1958  -- Rep. Celler introduces H. R. 10107, designed to restore Part III of the 1957 Civil Rights Act, and H. R. 10672, a companion bill to S. 3257 (6/5/58 report).

February 21, 1958 – Sen. William E. Jenner (R., Ind.) introduces S. 2646, designed to curb the power of the Judicial Branch; the bill is sent to the Internal Security Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee (3/6/58 report).

March 4, 1958 – Senate confirms President Eisenhower’s nomination of the six members of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission (3/6/58 report).

March 18, 1958 – House passes Habeas Corpus bill (H. R. 8361) (9/4/58 report); the bill is sent to the Senate where it goes to the Judiciary Committee (6/5/58 report)

March 31, 1958 – House appropriates $750,000 for the operation of the Commission on Civil Rights (4/11/58 report).

April 23, 1958 --  House defeats anti-segregation amendment to a bill extending the term of a government program designed to provide financial aid to school systems carrying the burden of federal activities (H. R. 11378) (5/9/58 report).

April 23, 1958 – Rep. Celler introduces H. R. 12116, designed to make a federal crime the transport of dynamite and other explosives across state lines to be used in violating state or federal laws.  Sen. John F. Kennedy (D., Mass.) introduces S. 3917 in the Senate as a companion to H. R. 12116 (6/5/58 report).

April 30, 1958 – S. 2646, with an amendment by Sen. John Marshall Butler (R., Md.) proposing that the Supreme Court be prohibited from reviewing state bar admission regulations, is favorably reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee (5/9/58 report).

May 14, 1958 – Senate confirms nomination of Gordon M. Tiffany as staff director, U.S. Civil Rights Commission.

May 21, 1958 – House agrees to a motion to consider H. R. 7999, even though the Rules Committee has not granted the measure a rule; Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn (D., Texas) rules on a point of order that the bill qualifies as privileged matter under a House rule permitting bills to admit territories to statehood status to be reported directly to the floor without approval from the Rules Committee.

May 28, 1958 – House Judiciary Committee reports out H. R. 977, designed to permit states to pass anti-sedition laws, thus overturning the Nelson case.

May 28, 1958 – House passes H. R. 7999 and sends it to the Senate.

June 30, 1958 – Senate passes H. R. 7999 and sends it to President Eisenhower who signs it into law July 7.

July 2, 1958 – House passes H. R. 11477—the “Mallory” bill—which states, among other things, that confessions and statements against interest that are otherwise admissible, will not be deemed inadmissible due to unnecessary delay before the suspect is arraigned and is informed of his right to counsel; this is a response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Mallory v. United States (354 US 449) which  states that confessions obtained  before the suspect is arraigned or advised of his rights violates the suspect’s right to due process (9/4/58 report)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

July 17, 1958 – House passes H. R. 3 (after amending it with H. R. 977) which states that (a) in a conflict between federal and state legislation the state law would not be invalid unless Congress had specifically directed that the federal government had preempted the field, and (b) permitted states to pass anti-sedition laws. The bill, sponsored by Reps. Howard W. Smith (D., Va.) and William M. Colmer (D., Miss.), is in response to the Supreme Court decisions in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and Pennsylvania v. Nelson.

August 1, 1958 – Senate Judiciary Committee approves S. 654, which like H.R. 977, permits states to pass anti-sedition laws, and reports it out to the full Senate five days later.

August 6, 1958 – Senate passes a bill (S. 1846) establishing a territorial government for the District of Columbia, calling for an appointed governor, a non-voting delegate to the House and a legislative assembly. Sent to the House, the bill dies in the House District of Columbia Committee.

August 18, 1958 – Senate confirms W. Wilson White as U.S. Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department; he had been in the position since the previous December under an interim appointment  by President Eisenhower; although his nomination was sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee in January, the confirmation was held up by southern Senators due to his having given legal advice concerning the use of troops in the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas (9/4/58 report)

August 19, 1958 – Senate passes H. R. 11477. (9/4/58 report)

August 20, 1958 – Senate tables S. 2646 (Jenner-Butler bill) which was offered as a floor amendment to H. R. 6789, a minor court bill (9/4/58 report)

August 21, 1958 – Senate recommits S. 654 to the Judiciary Committee.

August 23, 1958 – Senate adjourns without H. R. 11477 becoming law when Sen. John A. Carroll (D., Colo.) raises a point of order against the version of the bill adopted by the Conference Committee; the point of order is sustained by Vice-President Nixon, then presiding over the Senate. Since the point of order was made at 4 AM of the day of adjournment, no further action on the bill could be taken (9/4/58 report)

1959

January 17, 1959 – Sen. Jacob Javits (R., N.Y.), with Sen. Kenneth Keating (R., N.Y.) and four others introduce S. 456, designed to provide the Attorney General with the power to: (a) to prosecute a civil proceeding for or in the name of the United States to protect the rights of persons subject to or threatened with loss of the right of equal protection of the laws by reason of race, color, religion or national origin. Such a proceeding could be instituted upon a sworn complaint of a person or persons unable because of financial inability or other reason to prosecute such a proceeding. Such a proceeding would be for preventive relief for injunction or other order against any person acting under color of law to deny equal protection of the laws or any one conspiring with such person; (b) initiate preventive proceedings against anyone conspiring through threats, violence, or otherwise to hinder duly constituted State or local authorities from giving or securing equal protection on the laws. Such proceeding could be instituted upon the written request of the officials; (c) authorize the institution of preventive proceedings without the requirement of exhaustion of administrative remedies (2/5/59 report).

January 22, 1959 – Rep. Celler proposes H. R. 3147, that, among other things, includes Part III of the 1957 Civil Rights Bill (eliminated from that bill), that authorizes the U.S. Attorney General to file civil suits seeking court injunctions against deprivation of any civil right (7/10/59 report)

January 24, 1959 – Senate considers S. 50, the Hawaii Statehood bill and sends it to the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee.

January 30, 1959 – Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson (D., Tex.) introduced S. 499 that features: (a) an anti-bombing provision; (b) extension of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission; (c) a grant of subpoena powers to the Justice Department in investigations of voting rights cases; and (d) the establishment of a Federal Community Relations Service to assist in the resolution and conciliation of disputes over segregation and integration (2/5/59 report).

January 30, 1959 – Sen. Paul H. Douglas (D., Ill.), with sixteen other Senators in a show of bipartisan support, introduces S. 810 which was designed to: (a) provide the federal government with the authority to develop and enforce, through the courts, school desegregation programs; (b) restore Part III of the Civil Rights Bill of 1957 (see above); (c) authorize the secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) to provide grants to communities where desegregation was in progress and to (d) persuade state and local communities to commence desegregation. Should that be determined to be an impossibility, the secretary of HEW would have the authority to prepare a tentative desegregation plan (utilizing the advice and assistance of local organizations, officials and citizens), and, should that plan not be acceptable, to hold hearings in order to develop a more acceptable plan (2/5/59 report).

February 5, 1959 – The Eisenhower administration submitted to Congress through Senate Minority Leader Sen. Everett M. Dirksen (R., Ill.) and Sen. Barry Goldwater (R., Ariz.) a seven point program requesting: (a) an anti-mob bill, making interference with the a federal court school desegregation order a federal crime (S. 955); (b) an anti-bombing bill, making it a federal crime to cross state lines to avoid prosecution for bombing a school or church (S. 956); (c) a bill authorizing the Justice Department to be able to inspect voting records and requiring the preservation of those records (S. 957); (d) extending the life of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission (S. 960); (e) a bill to give statutory authority to the President’s Committee on Government Contracts (S. 942); (f) a bill authorizing limited financial aid to areas faced with school desegregation problems (S. 958); and (g) provision of emergency schooling for the children of armed forces personnel in the event that public schools were closed due to integration disputes (S. 959) (2/5/59 report).

February 12, 1959 -- The Eisenhower Administration civil rights program noted above is submitted to the House through Rep. William M. McCulloch (R., Ohio) as H.R. 4457 (9/11/59 report).

March 11, 1959 – Senate passes S. 50 and sends it to the House.

March 12, 1959—House passes S. 50 and sends it to President Eisenhower who signs it into law on March 18.

April 20, 1959 – The Internal Security Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee begins hearings on a number of internal security bills including S. 3, the Senate counterpart of H.R. 3; none of the preemption bills would be reported to the Senate.

April 30, 1959 – Sen. Philip A. Hart (D., Mich.) introduces S. 1848 designed to outlaw lynching.

May 14, 1959 – Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr. (D., Minn.) introduces seven pieces of proposed legislation: S. 1997 (Anti-Jim Crow Travel); S. 1998 (Protection for Members of the Armed Service); S. 1999 (FEPC with Enforcement Powers); S. 2000 (Anti-Poll Tax); S. 2001 (Strengthening Civil Rights Statutes); S. 2002 (Anti-Peonage Bill) and S. 2003 (Omnibus Civil Rights Bill).  Eight days later, he introduces S. 2041, another anti-lynching law (6/3/59 report).

May 20, 1959 –House defeats an anti-segregation amendment to an amendment (H. R. 7117) to the proposed Housing Act of 1959 (H. R. 57) (6/3/59 report).

May 21, 1959 – House rejects non-discrimination amendment to the proposed Housing Act of 1959 (H. R. 57).

May 26, 1959 – Sens. Javits and Frank J. Lausche (D., Ohio) present an amendment to S. 499—the Johnson Civil Rights bill—that would make lynching a federal crime.

June 2, 1959 – House Judiciary Committee reports out H.R. 3, the namesake of the previous year’s bill; as did its predecessor, it contained a general preemption limitation and permitted states to pass their own anti-sedition laws reversing Pennsylvania v. Nelson.

June 17, 1959 – Subcommittee No. 5 of the House Judiciary Committee amends H. R. 3147 by joining it with H. R. 4457 and sends the amended bill to the full committee (7/10/59 report).

June 24, 1959 – House passes H.R. 3; however, it is not reported to the Senate; S. 3, its Senate counterpart, dies in committee

July 1, 1959 – H.R. 3147 is favorably reported out by Subcommittee No. 5 of the House Judiciary Committee and sent to the full committee (7/10/59 report)

July 15, 1959 – The Constitutional Rights Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee reported S. 2391 to the full committee. This bill would have required preservation of voting records and extended the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.

July 15, 1959 – Senate passes a bill (S. 1681) permitting home rule for the District of Columbia and sends it to the House, where no action was taken.

August 3, 1959 – Senate Judiciary Committee begins consideration of S. 2391, but failed to report it out before adjournment on September 15.

August 20, 1959 – House Judiciary Committee takes H.R. 3147, deletes Part III provisions and the Eisenhower administration’s provisions for aid to areas desegregating schools and for establishment of the Commission on Equal Job Opportunity, and reports out the amended bill as H.R. 8601, a “clean bill” sent to the House Rules Committee (9/11/59 report).

September 2, 1959 – The Senate Judiciary Constitutional Amendment Subcommittee approves S. J. Res. 126, a proposed constitutional amendment sponsored by Sen. Spessard L. Holland (D., Fla.), designed to abolish the poll tax and other property qualifications for voting in federal elections.

September 7, 1959 – Rep. Celler files a motion to discharge H. R. 8601 from the House Rules Committee; when Congress adjourned, there were over a hundred signatures on the discharge petition (12/22/59 report).

September 8, 1959 – U.S. Civil Rights Commission made its report to the President and Congress. The Commission made fourteen recommendations in the field of voting, education and housing. In addition, some of the Commissioners, jointly or individually, made additional recommendations that failed to secure the support of a majority of the Commission (9/11/59 report).

September 14, 1959 – Senate approved a rider to the Mutual Security Program appropriation bill that extended the term of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission to November 8, 1961, and appropriated $500,000 for fiscal year 1960. As the Commission was scheduled to go out of existence sixty days after filing its report, and with extension legislation bottled up in the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senate Appropriations Committee attached the rider to the appropriation bill. The House of Representatives approved the rider the next day (12/22/59 report).

1960

January 11, 1960 – Sen. Jacob Javits (R., N.Y.) introduces five civil rights bills: S. 2782, amending the Civil Rights Bill of 1957; S. 2783, protecting the right to vote; S. 2784, anti-lynching legislation; S. 2785, calling for the preservation of voting records; and S. 2786, calling for federal intervention in situations where the right to equal protection of the laws was denied. A number of other bills, including S. 2535 and H.R. 9318, propose the use of federal registrars to guarantee the right to vote (1/13/60 report).

January 28, 1960 – House begins consideration of  H. R. 10035 (introduced by Rep. William M. McCulloch (R., Ohio) and designed to amend H. R. 8601 and the 1957 Civil Rights Act by including the referee plan, first announced by Attorney General William P. Rogers on January 26, 1960, and designed to protect voting rights by providing for the use of a voting referee appointed by a federal court in areas where a pattern or practice of discrimination existed because of race, color, religion or national origin)—and sends it to the Judiciary Committee (2/5/60 report).

February 2, 1960 – Senate tables Senator Javits’ proposal to abolish the poll tax through an act of Congress; the Senate subsequently passed three proposed constitutional amendments (S. J. Res. 39) designed to: (a) outlaw the poll tax as a condition of voting in federal elections; (b) provide residents of the District of Columbia the right to vote for President and Vice President and elect a delegate to the House of Representatives; and (c) provide the governors of the various states with the authority to fill vacancies in the House should more than half of its membership be killed in a nuclear attack The first provision of S. J. Res. 39 had been introduced the previous year as S. J. Res. 126 (2/5/60 report).

February 2, 1960 – Senate approves S. J. Res. 126, calling for the abolition of the poll tax through constitutional amendment.

February 4, 1960 – House begins consideration of S. J. Res. 39 and sends it to the Judiciary Committee. Subsequently, the Committee deletes the provision banning the poll tax from S. J. Res. 39 after committee chairman Rep. Celler announced that he would join Sen. Holland in the fight to repeal the poll tax by constitutional amendment in the next Congress; only then does the Committee favorably report out the resolution and send it to the full House.

February 4, 1960 – Senate defeats Sen. Wayne Morse (D., Ore.)’s amendment to school construction bill (S. 8) that would have provided federal loans for private schools (2/5/60 report).

February 4, 1960 – House Rules Committee begins holding hearings on H. R. 8601 (2/5/60 report).

February 15, 1960 – Senate begins consideration of H. R. 8315, a bill proposing to authorize the Secretary of the Army to lease an unused structure at Fort Crowder, Mo., to an adjoining municipality for use as a public school building; Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D., Texas), the Senate Majority Leader, invites members of the Senate to add civil rights amendments to it, as the Judiciary Committee had failed to report out any civil rights legislation (3/12/60 report).

February 15, 1960 – Sen. Everett M. Dirksen (R., Ill.) submits a civil rights amendment to H. R. 8315.

February 18, 1960 – House Rules Committee grants H. R. 8601 a rule covering debate on the bill.

February 23, 1960 – House Rules Committee favorably reports H. R. 8601, with amendments.

February 23, 1960 – Rep. McCulloch, after testimony in Judiciary Committee hearings on H. R. 10035 proposes a revised version, entitled H. R. 10625, as a substitution for H. R. 10035, and as an amendment to H. R. 8601 and the 1957 Civil Rights Act.

February 29, 1960 – Speeches from southern senators attacking civil rights turn into a filibuster that goes on around the clock (3/12/60 report).

March 8, 1960 – A bipartisan group of Senators offers a petition to invoke cloture in order to end the filibuster (3/12/60 report).

March 10, 1960 –Senate defeats attempt to invoke cloture under Senate Rule XXII against anti-civil rights filibuster (3/12/60 report).

March 10, 1960 – Senate tables an amendment to proposed civil rights legislation designed to give the Attorney General the power to seek injunctive relief in civil rights cases (“Part III” from the 1957 Civil Rights Act) (3/12/60 report).

March 10, 1960 – Senate passes an amendment to proposed civil rights legislation reducing the penalty imposed in the civil rights package for use of threats or force to obstruct court orders in school desegregation cases from a fine of $10,000 to $1,000 and jail sentences from two years to one year, and also an amendment which made the provision apply to court decisions other than those in school cases. Upon approval of this latter amendment, Sen. Wayne Morse (D., Ore.) leads a successful move to strike out the entire section on a motion to table. The motion to table prevails 49 to 35 (3/12/60 report).March 10, 1960 – House begins debate on H. R. 8601 (3/12/60 report).March 14, 1960 – Rep. Emanuel Celler (D., N.Y.) offers an amendment to establish a permanent Commission on Equal Job Opportunity under Government Contracts to prevent racial discrimination by firms granted contracts with the federal government.  Rep. Howard W. Smith (D., Va.) raises a point of order that the provision is not germane to H. R. 8601 and he is sustained by Rep. Francis E. Walter (D., Pa.) who is presiding.  Celler moves to appeal Mr. Walter’s ruling to the House membership and Mr. Walter is sustained by a standing vote of 157-67 (4/30/60 report).

March 15, 1960 – Rep. William McCulloch (R., Ohio) proposes H. R. 11160, which is the Eisenhower administration’s proposal on civil rights including the referee plan sponsored by Attorney General Rogers (4/9/60 report).

March 15, 1960 – House defeats a provision permitting court referees register only those blacks on whose behalf a suit had been brought and won under the 1957 Civil Rights Act (4/30/60 report).

March 16, 1960 – House approves amendment to H. R. 8601 to require the court to allow a Negro to vote provisionally; if he applies to the referee 20 or more days before the election, the court would have discretion (4/30/60 report).

March 22, 1960 – House adds H. R. 11160 -- the Eisenhower administration’s civil rights proposal, along with Rep. Celler’s amendment—to H.R. 8601 as an amendment (4/30/60 report).

March 24, 1960 – House passes Civil Rights Act of 1960 (H. R. 8601).

March 25, 1960 – House begins consideration of H. R. 9452, introduced by Rep. Emanuel Celler (D., N.Y.) calling for the use of federal registrars to protect voting rights; this proposal was recommended by the Civil Rights Commission in their report of September 8, 1959 and would empower the President, in valid cases involving state registrars who refused to register otherwise qualified voters because of race, color, religion or national origin, to designate a federal officer or employee to register voters until state officials were ready to resume the task on a nondiscriminatory basis; the bill is sent to the Judiciary Committee.

March 30, 1960 – Senate Judiciary Committee reports out H. R. 8601, after adding amendments to it, and Senate starts debate on it.

April 8, 1960 – Senate passes Civil Rights Act of 1960 (H. R. 8601).

April 29, 1960 – After the House Rules Committee clears H. R. 8601 for House concurrence with the Senate’s amendments, the whole House, by roll call vote, agrees to the amendments, then sends the bill to President Eisenhower, who signs it on May 6.

May 17, 1960 – In an attempt to bring S. 1681, the D.C. home rule bill, to the House floor, supporters gained 204 of the necessary 219 signatures needed on a petition to force the House District of Columbia Committee to discharge the measure, but were unable to bring the bill to the floor.

May 26, 1960 – House adds non-segregation amendment to school construction bill (H. R. 10128); the bill is subsequently passed (6/10/60 report).

May 27, 1960 – Senate passes S. 1617 which provides for the surrender of legislative jurisdiction to the states by the Federal Government over property owned by the Federal Government and over which the Federal Government has exclusive or concurrent jurisdiction. This measure fails to pass the House (12/20/60 report).

June 14, 1960 – House passes an amended S. J. Res. 39 and sends it to the Senate.

June 16, 1960 – Senate, by voice vote, concurs with the House amendments to S. J. Res. 39. The measure then goes to the states for ratification and after Kansas ratifies it on March 29, 1961, becomes the 23^rd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

June 22, 1960 – Senate tables an anti-segregation amendment to the Independent Offices appropriation bill.

August 9, 1960 – Senate tables S. 3823, a bill that incorporated two of the Eisenhower Administration’s civil rights provisions taken from the 1960 Civil Rights Bill—(a) to establish a Commission on Equal Job Opportunity, and (b) to provide federal funds to aid areas desegregating their schools.

 

House Reports

 

H. Report 1504 on H.R. 7535. See 2/9/56.