End the Filibuster

Mike Mansfield used this vote count sheet to tally the yeas and nays--which senators would vote for cloture to end the filibuster on the civil rights bill, and which senators would not. Mss 065, Series XXII, Box 28/11

On March 26, 1964, civil rights opponents in the Senate, primarily from the Southern bloc, launched a filibuster to H.R. 7152--the civil rights bill passed by the House of Representatives. With a Senate unwilling to end the filibuster, Mike Mansfield chose a route that had rarely been successful in the history of the U.S. Senate: obtaining the votes needed to invoke cloture, a measure that ends all debate on the Senate floor and permits a vote by majority rule. Mansfield needed 67 votes, and though he had a 67-33 vote majority in the Senate, his biggest problem came from his own party caucus. Nearly 20 conservative Democrats opposed civil rights legislation.