Word: dirksens
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...five conferences, agreement was finally reached on the package, essentially a rewritten version of the House bill. On May 26 it was introduced to the Senate by Dirksen as an amendment. Said he: "I doubt very much whether in my whole legislative lifetime any measure has received so much meticulous attention...
...many ways, despite other Senators' heavy involvements, it is Dirksen's bill, bearing his handiwork more than anyone else's. Dirksen's 70-odd amendments are less notable for their number than for their thrust. In essence, he has changed the bill so as to allow the states more leeway in controlling their own civil rights conflicts, and to bar possibly overzealous federal officials?such as an Attorney General?from charging in and initiating civil rights suits without first establishing a "pattern" of discrimination. On both sides of the Senate aisle, almost everyone agrees that Dirksen's proposed amendments vastly...
Just what lay behind Dirksen's endless efforts to shape a workable civil rights bill? Although he voted for lesser civil rights measures in 1957 and again in 1960, there is nothing in his background to suggest that he is any sort of civil rights crusader...
...Essence. To Ev Dirksen, the answer to that question is simple enough. "I come of immigrant German stock," he says. "My mother stood on Ellis Island as a child of 17, with a tag around her neck directing that she be sent to Pekin, Illinois. Our family had opportunities in Illinois, and the essence of what we're trying to do in the civil rights bill is to see that others have opportunities in this country...
Last year Chicago Negroes, protesting that Dirksen had not committed himself on the civil rights bill, threw up a picket line around a hotel where Ev was scheduled to speak. Throughout his long political career?16 years in the House, 14 in the Senate?he has received little support from Negroes. He feels a certain bitterness about all this, but not enough to affect his advocacy of the civil rights bill. Explaining his support of that measure, Dirksen says: "I have looked at all the people who came into this office to see me?lawyers, contractors, businessmen, ministers, rabbis, priests...