“The Decision Has Been Made by the Man with All the Votes”: Lyndon Johnson and the Unexpected Campaign for the Fair Housing Act

Kumar Ramanathan, University of Illinois Chicago

The Fair Housing Act of 1968 often appears as one in a series of major statutes enacted during the heyday of civil rights movement mobilization and party realignment in the U.S. during the 1960s. However, its historical development differs in an important but under-explored way from earlier civil rights bills. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 followed long periods of sustained effort among liberal Democrats in Congress. The Fair Housing Act, on the other hand, arrived on the congressional agenda despite the efforts of many of these same liberal Democrats to avoid the issue, as a result of an unexpected and idiosyncratic decision by President Johnson. For much of the 1950s-60s, fair housing advocates’ national policymaking efforts were focused on demands for executive action rather than legislation. Activists and policymakers alike were aware of the issue’s widespread unpopularity, including among the northern liberals who had supported other civil rights issues such as fair employment and voting rights. Despite these circumstances, President Johnson decided in 1965 to reject demands for a new executive order and instead send a fair housing bill to Congress. The civil rights advocacy coalition initially balked at the decision and some worried that it was an empty promise designed to shirk responsibility, although they eventually mounted a lobbying campaign to support the president’s bill. This paper draws on archival evidence to examine Johnson’s decision and the fallout among White House officials, members of Congress, and advocates. This under-explored episode illustrates how policymakers contended with one of the most controversial issues on the civil rights agenda, and how they sought to displace or diffuse responsibility for action. It also shows how the role of the president as a lawmaker can enable unexpected and contingent events to significantly alter the policymaking process.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 130. Policymaking in U.S. Politics