Editing Everett Dirksen (section)

===Civil rights legislation===
Dirksen voted in favor of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1957|Civil Rights Acts of 1957]],<ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate – August 7, 1957|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=103|issue=10|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|page=13900|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt10/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt10-9-1.pdf|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate – August 29, 1957|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=103|issue=12|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|page=16478|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt12/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt12-6-1.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211008164318/https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt12/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt12-6-1.pdf |archive-date=October 8, 2021 |url-status=live|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref> [[Civil Rights Act of 1960|1960]],<ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate – April 8, 1960|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=106|issue=6|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|pages=7810–7811|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1960-pt6/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1960-pt6-8-1.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220131013534/https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1960-pt6/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1960-pt6-8-1.pdf |archive-date=January 31, 2022 |url-status=live|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref> [[Civil Rights Act of 1964|1964]],<ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate – June 19, 1964|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=110|issue=11|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|page=14511|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1964-pt11/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1964-pt11-3-2.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220131024033/https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1964-pt11/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1964-pt11-3-2.pdf |archive-date=January 31, 2022 |url-status=live|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref> and [[Civil Rights Act of 1968|1968]],<ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate – March 11, 1968|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=114|issue=5|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|page=5992|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1968-pt5/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1968-pt5-4-2.pdf|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref> as well as the [[Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution|24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution]],<ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate – March 27, 1962|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=108|issue=4|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|page=5105|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1962-pt4/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1962-pt4-9-1.pdf|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref> the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]],<ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate – May 26, 1965|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=111|issue=2|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|page=11752|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1965-pt9/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1965-pt9-2-2.pdf|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate – August 4, 1965|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=111|issue=14|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|page=19378|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1965-pt14/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1965-pt14-6-1.pdf|access-date=February 18, 2022}}</ref> and the [[Thurgood Marshall Supreme Court nomination|confirmation]] of [[Thurgood Marshall]] to the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate – August 30, 1967|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=113|issue=18|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|page=24656|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1967-pt18/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1967-pt18-7-2.pdf|access-date=February 5, 2022}}</ref>

In 1964, amid a 54-day filibuster by Southern senators of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Dirksen, Republican [[Thomas Kuchel]] and Democrats [[Hubert Humphrey]] and [[Mike Mansfield]] introduced a compromise amendment. It weakened the House version on the government's power to regulate the conduct of private business, but it was not so weak it would cause the House to reconsider the legislation.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}} The Department of Justice said the Mansfield-Dirksen Amendment would not prevent effective enforcement. However, Senator [[Richard Russell Jr.]] of Georgia refused to allow a vote on the amendment. Finally, Republican Senator [[Thruston Morton]] proposed an amendment that guaranteed jury trials in all criminal contempt cases except voting rights. It was approved on June 9, and Humphrey made a deal with three Republicans to substitute it for the Mansfield-Dirksen Amendment in exchange for their supporting [[cloture]] on the [[filibuster]]. Thus, after 57 days of filibuster, the substitute bill passed in the Senate, and the House–Senate conference committee agreed to adopt the Senate version of the bill.<ref>Library of Congress exhibition, The Civil Rights Act of 1964</ref>

At that cloture vote, Dirksen said: "[[Victor Hugo]] wrote in his diary substantially this sentiment: 'Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come.' The time has come for equality of opportunity in sharing of government, in education, and in employment. It must not be stayed or denied."<ref name=dirksencenter>{{cite web|title=Everett McKinley Dirksen's Finest Hour: June 10, 1964|url=http://www.dirksencenter.org/print_basics_histmats_civilrights64_cloturespeech.htm|website=Dirksen Congressional Center|access-date=May 11, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151024144501/http://www.dirksencenter.org/print_basics_histmats_civilrights64_cloturespeech.htm|archive-date=October 24, 2015}}</ref>

On March 22, 1966, Dirksen introduced a constitutional amendment to permit [[public school (government funded)|public school]] administrators providing for organized prayer by students; the introduction was in response to ''[[Engel v. Vitale]]'', which struck down the practice. Considered by opponents to violate the principle of [[separation of church and state]], the amendment was defeated in the Senate and gained only 49 affirmative votes, far short of the 67 votes a constitutional amendment needs for passage.

Dirksen was a firm opponent of the doctrine of [[one man, one vote]] on the grounds that large cities (such as Chicago in Dirksen's home state of Illinois) could render rural residents of a state powerless in their state governments without some form of [[concurrent majority]]. After the [[Warren Court]] imposed one-man-one-vote on all state legislative houses in the 1964 case ''[[Reynolds v. Sims]]'', he led an ultimately unsuccessful effort to convene an [[Article V convention]] for an amendment to the Constitution that would allow for legislative districts of unequal population.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/landmark_reynolds.html PBS article on ''Reynolds v. Sims'']</ref>