Michigan's Republican Senator Charles Potter, up for 1958 re-election in an intensely civil-rights-conscious state, last week added his name to the brief list of Senators who will fight for a filibuster-busting rules change in the opening days of the 85th Congress. The attempt is foredoomed, and has diverted attention from a significant fact: there is a real possibility that in 1957 the Senate, its rules unchanged, and the House of Representatives will enact the first major civil-rights legislation since Reconstruction.
The 1956 elections, which saw more Negroes voting Republican than at any time in two decades, convinced Northern and Western...
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