Omaha native served as LBJ's sounding board on civil rights

http://www.omaha.com/news/metro/omaha-native-served-as-lbj-s-sounding-board-on-civil/article_75ac5bdb-f4bd-56c6-a233-4dcbae6139a3.html



LBJ PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY
Lee White confers in the Oval Office with President Lyndon Johnson. White served LBJ as an adviser on civil rights, as he had President John Kennedy.

POSTED: SUNDAY, JUNE 29, 2014 12:30 AM
By Henry J. Cordes / World-Herald staff writer

After all Lyndon Johnson’s cajoling, horse-trading, intimidating and arm-twisting, Congress was set to pass a far-reaching law outlawing racial discrimination in all its ugly forms.

The president called Lee White, the Omaha native who served as LBJ’s point man on civil rights, and again sought his valued advice: Do you think I ought to quietly sign the bill? Or do you think “we ought to have a big hullabaloo about it?’’


LBJ PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY

President Lyndon Johnson at work. At right is aide Lee White, an Omaha native who graduated from the University of Nebraska with degrees in electrical engineering and law.


White told him that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was so monumental, he likened it to President Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation more than a century before.
“I would think it deserves a real niche in history,’’ White said. “And (it) may even provide an opportunity for you to address the nation for five or 10 minutes, asking people to understand it and try to go along with its very simple and very basic appeals to justice, fairness, equality and conscience.’’

FULL story at link.

CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
The legislation was signed by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964. The major provisions of the bill are that it:
» Outlawed discrimination in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters and all public accommodations.
» Outlawed segregation of schools and other public facilities and empowered the U.S. Justice Department to file suit to achieve desegregation.
» Outlawed discrimination in employment and created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to review complaints.
» Barred unequal application of voter registration requirements.
Source: The Dirksen Center