Civil Rights, Alaska, & Hawaii
In the late 1950s civil rights bills were being introduced in Congress. To overcome the Southern Democrats’ suppression of the pro-Republican African-American vote,then-Republican Hawaii’s prospects for 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
Famous quotes containing the words civil and/or hawaii:
“Come, come, my boy, say “Good morning” to your creator. Speak! You’ve got a civil tongue in your head, I know you have because I sewed it back myself.”
—Kenneth Langtry, and Herbert L. Strock. Prof. Frankenstein (Whit Bissell)
“Flower picking.”
—Hawaiian saying no. 2710, ‘lelo No’Eau, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui, Bishop Museum Press, Hawaii (1983)