Civil Rights, Alaska, & Hawaii
In the late 1950s Civil Rights Bills were being introduced to the Congress. To overcome the Southern Democrats’ suppression of the pro-Republican African-American vote Hawaii’s (Then Republican) prospects at statehood were tied to Alaska’s, which many thought would be more Democratic. Hawaii Statehood was expected to result in the addition of two pro-civil-rights Senators from a state which would be the first to have majority non-white population. This would endanger the Southern minority segregationist Democrat Senate by providing two more Republican votes to invoke cloture and halt a Senate filibuster. The Congressional vote totals show a proportionally larger support for the 1964 Civil Rights Act by the Republican Party. The House of Representatives’ vote by party was 136 to 35 (80% support) by Republicans, but only 153 to 91 (63% support) by Democrats.
Read more about this topic: Alaska Statehood Act
Famous quotes containing the words civil and/or hawaii:
“The utter helplessness of a conquered people is perhaps the most tragic feature of a civil war or any other sort of war.”
—Rebecca Latimer Felton (1835–1930)
“No one to slap his head.”
—Hawaiian saying no. 190, ‘lelo No’Eau, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui, Bishop Museum Press, Hawaii (1983)