The bill of the century : the epic battle for the Civil Rights Act / Clay Risen.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-268) and index.

Bad beginnings to a big year -- "A national movement to enforce national laws" -- An idea becomes a bill -- The October crisis -- "Let us continue" -- A battle is lost -- The South takes its stand -- Breaking the filibuster -- A bill becomes a law.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the single most important piece of legislation passed by Congress in American history. This one law so dramatically altered American society that, looking back, it seems preordained, though at the time it was anything but : a phalanx of powerful senators, pledging to "fight to the death" for segregation, launched the longest filibuster in American history to defeat it. The bill's passage has often been credited to the political leadership of President Lyndon B. Johnson, or the moral force of Martin Luther King Jr., but the battle for the Civil Rights Act was much bigger than these two men. In The bill of the century, Clay Risen delivers the full story in all its complexity and dramas. It's a story of epic struggle, unceasing grassroots activism, ringing speeches, backroom deal-making, and, finally, hand-to-hand legislative combat. Deeply researched and beatifully written, Risen's gripping, as-it-happens account is bound to become the definitive book on this extraordinary juncture in American history.