    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book II)]
    [July 1, 2004]
    [Pages 1222-1224]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on the 40th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
    July 1, 2004

        Thank you all for coming, and welcome to the White House. I am so
    pleased you could join us to celebrate a great anniversary of justice
    and equality in America.
        I appreciate members of my Cabinet being here and a lot of members
    of my administration. I want to thank many of our distinguished guests
    who have joined us today. I'm so pleased to see Dr. Dorothy
    Height. Thank you so much for coming.
        We've got two Lieutenant Governors, Michael Steele and Jennette Bradley, with
    us. Thank you both for being here today. Marc
    Morial--where are you, Marc? He must be somewhere. There he is. Thanks
    for coming. I didn't recognize you outside the ``Big Easy.'' [Laughter]
        Lou Sullivan is with us. I'm honored
    you're here, Lou. Thanks for coming, sir. My friend Bob
    Woodson, president of the National
    Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, is here. Thanks for coming, Woody.
    Glad you're here. Bill Coleman,
    former Secretary of Transportation, I'm honored you're here. Thurgood
    Marshall, Jr., is with us today.
    Thank you so much for being here. Appreciate--I'm honored you're here.
    It's pretty neat to have a great father, isn't it? [Laughter]
        I'm going to save one announcement for a little later, a special
    announcement. But I do want to recognize Jack Valenti, who was the Special Assistant to President Lyndon
    Johnson. Jack, we're honored you're here. Thank you for coming.
        Forty years ago, in many parts of America, basic rights were
    observed or denied based entirely on race. Offensive laws regulated
    every detail of society: where you could get your hair cut; which
    hospital ward you could be treated in; which park or library you could
    visit. A person looking for a job or even a place to stay the night
    could be turned away merely because the color of the skin. And that
    person had very little recourse under Federal law. Forty years ago this
    week, that system of indignity and injustice was ended by the Civil
    Rights Act signed into law in this very room.
        As of July the 2d, 1964, no longer could weary travelers be denied a
    room in a hotel or a table at a restaurant. No longer could

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    any American be forced to drink from a separate water fountain or sit at
    the back of a bus just because of their race. All discrimination did not
    end that day, but from that day forward, America has been a better and
    fairer country.
        Today we have here on display, outside this room, the first and last
    pages of the Civil Rights Act and one of the pens that President Lyndon
    B. Johnson used for the signature. That law was a long time in coming,
    and before it arrived, the conscience of America had to be awakened.
    That conscience was stirred by men and women who held sit-ins at lunch
    counters, who rode the buses on Freedom Rides, who endured and overcame
    the slurs and the firehoses and the burning crosses. The conscience of
    America was outraged by the ambush of Medgar Evers, by kidnapings and
    terror bombings, and by the murder of four young girls in a church on a
    Sunday. Our Nation's conscience was moved by hundreds of thousands who
    marched right here in the Nation's Capital to demand the full promise of
    the Declaration and America's founding law.
        President John F. Kennedy heard the voices of the Reverend Dr.
    Martin Luther King, Jr., and others, and took up the challenge. Five
    months before his death, the President said our Nation was confronted
    with a moral issue as old as the Scriptures and as clear as the American
    Constitution, and he called on Congress to pass civil rights
    legislation.
        After President Kennedy was assassinated, some wondered if the new
    President, a son of the South, would carry forward the work of civil
    rights. Very soon they would know the answer. During the Senate debate
    on the Civil Rights Act, one of the longest debates in Senate history,
    President Lyndon Johnson used all his powers of persuasion, and they
    were considerable. [Laughter] No one escaped the LBJ treatment--
    [laughter]--not Senators, not their staffs, not even their families. It
    is said that when President Johnson called reluctant Senators at home
    and a child answered, he would say, ``Now you tell your daddy that the
    President called.'' [Laughter] ``And he'd be very proud to have your
    daddy on his side.'' [Laughter]
        It was more than the force of Johnson's personality that helped win
    the day; it was the force of President Johnson's conviction on behalf of
    a just cause. As a young man, he'd seen the ugly effects of
    discrimination. As President, he was determined to fight it by law,
    regardless of the political risk. One Southern Senator warned him,
    ``It's going to cost you the election.'' He replied, ``If that's the
    price I've got to pay, I will pay it gladly.''
        Lyndon Johnson is known to history as the President who championed
    and signed the Civil Rights Act. And we recognize and remember the
    contributions of this strong Texan and great American. And we're honored
    to have his daughter, Luci Baines Johnson, with us today. We're honored you're here. Thanks for
    coming. I appreciate you coming.
        We also remember the legislators of both parties who worked
    tirelessly to bring the bill to passage, in particular, Senators Mike
    Mansfield of Montana, Senator Edward Dirksen of Illinois, and Senator
    Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota. When it mattered most, these principled
    men rose to the responsibility of their time, and our Nation honors them
    today.
        After the Civil Rights Act became law, the change was felt
    immediately all across America. In 1964, Dale Long
    was a 12-year-old boy living in Birmingham, Alabama. One day, before the
    law was passed, Dale and his brother convinced their father to take them
    to a movie where blacks had to enter through an alley and could only sit
    in the upstairs balcony. ``I could see the look of humiliation on my
    dad's face,'' he remembers. A few months after the Civil Rights Act, the
    Long brothers returned to that theater. As they remember it, they were
    with a friend. ``We went to see a James Bond movie,'' Dale says, and

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    this time they entered through the front door and sat where they
    pleased.
        The indignity of Dale Long's first experience
    at that movie theater seems like something that happened many lifetimes
    ago. Yet, such experiences are within the living memory of millions of
    our citizens. These past four decades in American life give witness to
    the power of good laws to prevent injustice and encourage the finest
    qualities of our national character.
        The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gives all Americans another reason to
    be proud of our country. The work of equality is not done because the
    evil of bigotry is not finally defeated. Yet, the laws of this Nation
    and the good heart of this Nation are on the side of equality. And as
    Dr. King reminded us, ``We must not rest until the day when justice
    rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.''
        I'm honored you all are here today. We'll have a reception on the
    other side of this beautiful house. Thank you for coming. May God
    continue to bless America.

    Note: The President spoke at 4:01 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to civil rights leader Dorothy I.
    Height; Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele of Maryland; Lt. Gov. Jennette B.
    Bradley of Ohio; Marc H. Morial, president and chief executive officer,
    National Urban League; and Louis W. Sullivan, chair, President's Board
    of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.