Crisis and Compromise

The Rescue of the 1964 Civil Rights Act

Robert Kimball

1963, a year suffused with unrest and widespread demands for change, was a turbulent period in our nation’s history. It was a time of freedom rides, sit-ins, demonstrations, and protests, all leading to the momentous August 28^th March on Washington, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, and, ultimately, passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which delivered a historic, legislative blow to discrimination and inequality.

In a vivid narrative, Robert Kimball provides a comprehensive, first-hand account of the largely overlooked role House Republicans—chiefly Representatives John V. Lindsay, Charles Halleck, and William McCulloch—played in the successful enactment of the Civil Rights Act. From the Birmingham church bombing to the crisis and compromise of late October, which preceded the affirmative vote in the House of Representatives on February 10, 1964, Kimball sheds light on what can be achieved with patience and true bipartisanship. His memoir reminds us of what is possible in the continuing struggle for equal rights and social justice when political differences are put aside for the greater good.

Robert Kimball, born in New York City in 1939, is a graduate of Yale College (BA, American Studies, 1961) and the Yale Law School (LLB, 1967). After a year as a Carnegie Teaching Fellow in American History at Yale (1961-62), he became the legislative assistant to Representative John V. Lindsay of New York (1962-1963), and then served as director of the Republican Legislative Research Association, an organization established by Charles Taft and Alfred Landon to assist Republican Congressmen in the deliberations on civil rights legislation during the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. As a principal aide to the House Republican leaders, he was one of the architects of the key bipartisan compromise of October 1963 that led to passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. After graduation from the Yale Law School, he pursued his long-standing interest in the American musical theatre when he was appointed Curator of Yale University's Collection of the Literature of the American Musical Theatre. He held that position from 1967 to 1971, and during his tenure began to write extensively about the American musical, becoming a recognized scholar, author, and editor in that field.