This bill would renounce the safe, proper, and acceptable role for Government as a referee of disputes between the governed. It would interpose the Government as a biased protagonist, armed with the awesome authority of the Federal Government, in addition to rulemaking and umpire powers. The broad grants of power to the Attorney General to initiate and intervene in civil actions would go far toward transforming him into George Orwell’s ‘Big Brother’ of ‘1984,’ in the year 1964.
Thurmond would switch his party affiliation to Republican three months later due to Democratic support for the Civil Rights Act. Senate Discussion of 1964 Civil Rights Act, taken from the Congressional Record (pgs 14310-14319).
Thursday, June 18, 1964
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