“When Are You Going to Pass Your Civil Rights?”

President Johnson phoned Hubert H. Humphrey Jr. [DFL-Minnesota] to express his concern about the senator’s son Robert, who had just been diagnosed with throat cancer. Johnson also discussed the progress of the civil rights bill, for which Humphrey served as floor leader in the Senate. While the two men talked, other U.S. senators made their final statements on the civil rights bill. Almost an hour later, Johnson received word that 73 senators had voted to pass the bill, assuring that Humphrey’s greatest political accomplishment would come at a moment of personal pain.