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CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

CARS HONKING HORNS

GUNSHOT

- PEOPLE SCREAMING - GUNSHOTS

SIREN WAILING

CRYING

NURSE CRYING

INAUDIBLE WHISPERING

WHISPERS He's gone.

Lyndon.

Lyndon.

Wake up, honey.

We're about to land in Washington.

Okay.

Did you hear from Bobby?

JENKINS: He'll be waiting on the tarmac.

There will be reporters there, too.

You'll be expected to make a statement, something short.

- Thank you. - I wanna reach out to the leadership

as soon as we hit the ground.

I wanna talk to each and every one of them.

You call Rose Kennedy?

I did.

My Lord, what that woman has been through.

Your lipstick.

- What? - Fix your lipstick.

Oh.

How did John Connally's surgery go?

Doctors are optimistic.

Ah.

Thank God for that.

Jackie?

She won't change her clothes.

Says she wants them to see what they have done to Jack.

You see the way she stared at me before I took the oath?

- She's upset, honey. - We're all upset, Bird!

We're all upset.

Walter, a televised address to both houses of Congress

as soon as it seems decent.

EXHALES

Where were you just now, Mr. President?

Accidental President.

That's what they'll say.

Well,

we'll have to change that next November.

BREATHES DEEPLY

INDISTINCT CHATTER

JOHNSON: I keep having this dream.

I'm back in the Hill Country in the old days,

hiding down in the root cellar

while a Comanche war party searches through the house just over my head,

hunting for me.

It's so dark down there, like a grave.

- MAN: The President of the United States! - APPLAUSE

JOHNSON: For this terrible moment,

I wonder if I'm dead already

or buried alive.

Mr. President.

I piss myself like an idiot child crouching in the dirt,

knowing it's only a matter of time now before they find the trapdoor,

discover me,

haul me, screaming, up into the light,

where their knives gleam.

APPLAUSE CONTINUES

All I have,

I would have given gladly not to be standing here today.

The greatest leader of our time has been struck down

by the foulest deed of our time.

John F. Kennedy told his countrymen

that our national work would not be finished in the life of this administration,

nor even perhaps in our own lifetime.

"But," he said,

"let us begin."

Today, I'd say to all my fellow Americans,

let us continue.

APPLAUSE

We have talked long enough in this country about civil rights.

We have talked for 100 years or more.

It is time now to write the next chapter in the books of law.

I urge you to enact President Kennedy's civil rights bill into law,

so that we can eliminate from this nation

every trace of discrimination that is based upon race or color.

- MAN: That's right! - APPLAUSE

INDISTINCT CHATTER

You hear what that Negro comedian Dick Gregory said about me?

"When Lyndon Johnson finished his speech, 20 million Negroes unpacked."

LAUGHS

That was a fine speech, Mr. President.

Dear to my heart, but I know some people are wondering, "Did he really mean it?"

Well, you could tell that liberal crowd of yours that I'm gonna out-Lincoln Lincoln.

But you need to get behind me

because you know Dick Russell and the Dixiecrats

are gonna fight me tooth and nail on this civil rights stuff.

Now, not too tight in the bunghole, Manny.

And give me some extra room in my pockets there

for my stuff, my keys and my knife,

and leave me some slack for my nut sack.

- CHUCKLES - Walter!

Walter, you let me know the minute Dick Russell gets here

and get me Katharine Graham from the Post, will you?

But timing is critical here, Hubert, you understand me?

With the election only 11 months away...

If the Republicans are foolish enough to nominate Barry Goldwater,

you'll beat him with both hands tied behind your back.

Well, Goldwater is tougher than you think.

But first, I gotta win the Democratic nomination.

Holy crap. What happened here?

You tell Lady Bird about this, and she'll starve me for a month.

- Senator Russell. - Oh. Yep, yep.

Give me one minute.

George Wallace is a nobody.

Well, it wasn't Wallace I'm thinking of.

You don't have to worry about Bobby.

Bobby Kennedy would just soon cut my throat as smile at me.

You know how strongly I feel about this civil rights bill.

If there's anything I can do...

Yeah, yeah, I'll keep that in mind, Hubert.

Mr. President.

Senator Russell.

Ah. Uncle Dick. LAUGHS

Well, well, well.

- Mr. President. - Ah. Lyndon, Lyndon, please.

No, sir. No, not anymore.

Wouldn't be respectful.

Well, in public, then, but nothing else changes between us.

Now, hell, I owe everything I have to your good wisdom and generosity,

and don't you think for a second I'll ever forget it.

Well, you did throw me for a bit of a loop last night.

A civil rights bill with your election coming up?

For 100 years, the Democratic Party's had a lock on the South.

It'd be a foolish thing to throw that away.

Oh, hell, Dick, you know I got to throw Humphrey

and the rest of those liberals a little bit of red meat now and again.

- Yes, but... - Sir, Dr. Martin Luther King is on three.

Well, he can wait.

So last night was just election-year politics or not?

Absolutely.

But I need you to hold the South for me, Uncle Dick.

Party unity, it is gonna be critical.

Well, we can talk more about it

when Lady Bird and I have you over for dinner on Thursday, as usual.

Oh. There's no need for that now.

Oh. Our Thursday dinners are sacred.

- Well... - Hey, why don't you bring your swimsuit

and you could paddle your milk-white ass around the White House pool before dinner?

BOTH CHUCKLE

Congratulations, Mr. President.

Thank you, Senator.

What the hell was she thinking?

Won't happen again, sir.

J. Edgar Hoover on four.

I mean no disrespect, but take down that stuff over there.

- Edgar. - Mr. President.

The FBI is here to assist in any way we can.

Oh, hell, Edgar, you're more than the head of the Bureau.

You're my brother.

Now, if the Bureau needs anything from me, you just let me know.

Well, in light of your announcement last night,

I think we should have a discussion regarding Dr. King.

I recently acquired certain information which is deeply troubling.

Uh... Edgar, Edgar, I hate to interrupt,

- but they're pulling me six ways from Sunday. - MAN: Mr. President!

I'm interested in this, and we'll talk soon, I promise.

If I could just...

Did King screw his sister or something?

That man's obsessed.

All right, Manny, let's just get this over with.

What?

What is it?

Katharine Graham of The Washington Post is on two.

- What? - And Dr. King is still on three.

Look, I don't need to be reminded of what I already know.

God damn it, you know, you're fired.

Go on, get the hell out of here.

Walter, get me another secretary who knows what she's doing.

And one with a little meat on her bones, for Christ's sake.

Not another one of these scrawny, old Washington biddies.

Oh, God damn it, Manny.

Don't you have anything that doesn't make me look like a dago undertaker?

PHONE BUZZING

I wanna thank you, Dr. King, for your public expression of support.

Well, we were all very heartened by your speech last night, Mr. President.

Well, it ain't gonna be easy.

- It's a difficult time. - Yes, it is.

But, as you suggested,

the greatest tribute we can pay to President Kennedy

is to enact his civil rights bill, especially voting rights.

Yeah, well, you're preaching to the choir there, Reverend.

Voting rights is the meat of the coconut,

and we're gonna pass that bill, as is, without changing a word.

But, boy, I'm gonna have to have your help.

Well, you know you have it, sir.

Well, thank you, Martin. Thank you.

And listen, why don't you call next time you're up here

and any suggestions you have,

- bring them in. - Well, actually...

LINE DISCONNECTS

Just blowing smoke up my ass.

He called for a civil rights bill in front of Congress, Martin.

Kennedy made promises, too, Stanley.

- He just never delivered. - He's no George Wallace.

You sure? So deep in Russell's back pocket, you'd think he was humping him.

SCOFFS He passed the '57 Civil Rights Act.

After he gutted it first.

That bill was like soup

made from the bones of an emaciated chicken.

LEVISON: Martin, listen, he's a Southern politician.

He's spent his entire life trying to be president.

But he's there now.

For the first time, he can do whatever he wants.

That's the question, isn't it?

What does Lyndon Johnson really want?

Well, whatever it is, 11 months from now, he has to run for reelection.

Like Kennedy, he damn sure is gonna need the Negro vote to win.

Amen.

LBJ wants our support.

Okay.

But this president is gonna have to deliver a real civil rights bill.

And we're gonna hold his feet to the fire until he does.

LEVISON: Damn right. ABERNATHY: That's right.

LEVISON ON SPEAKER: 11 months from now, he has to run for reelection.

Like Kennedy, he damn sure is gonna need the Negro vote to win.

ABERNATHY: Amen.

HOOVER: Stanley Levison.

Why is this so-called "Reverend" Martin Luther King

taking advice from a well-known Communist agitator?

That's a very good question, sir.

Let's see who else King is meeting.

I want all his travel covered from now on.

- Get started. - Yes, sir.

I will leave the goddamn Democratic Party before I turn it over

to a bunch of Congolese savages.

Now, hold on a second, Strom.

This bill is just the thin edge of the wedge.

You saw what King and his bunch did in Birmingham.

Why, integrated buses are just the beginning.

Now we gotta shop with them, eat with them, work with them.

We have been oppressed and degraded by black, slimy,

- unbearably stinking niggers. - That's enough of that kind of talk.

That's exactly what they wanna hear,

so they can dismiss us all as a bunch of redneck goons.

Thank you, Joles.

We have to be very careful how we handle this.

The issue is not about race.

It's about the gravest possible assault on the United States Constitution,

which we are fighting to defend.

The president is actively gathering signatures

for a discharge petition to get the bill out of my committee in the House.

And what do you expect him to do, Judge?

He's got to at least look lively on civil rights.

When the time comes, he's gonna do the right thing.

- He'll gut the bill? - Yes. He knows who his friends are.

But if he gets the bill out of my committee?

It still has to go through the House, then out of Jim's committee

before it even gets to the Senate floor.

And none of this can get in the way of party unity.

In this election, we can have a lock on the Senate

and a lock on the House, and we can elect a Southern Democrat president.

It's about time the South rejoined the rest of the country.

EXHALES My friends, if we do our part,

Lyndon is gonna know who to thank on November 4th.

And don't you worry about the president.

I know how to handle him.

Well, the mainstream of American politics

has carried you and me down to the road to statism and socialism

and the destruction of the Constitution of the United States.

And I am, for one, am already out of the mainstream of American politics.

He sure gets people stirred up, even in Milwaukee.

When we get to Atlantic City, I will be the Democratic nominee.

But how damaged will you be?

Be plenty strong enough for Goldwater in November.

What if Bobby smells blood and decides to run at the last minute?

That little shit doesn't have his brother's balls.

Still has his daddy's money.

You might win the nomination, but if the party splits...

Oh, come on now, Dick.

All Wallace has to beat you with is this damn civil rights bill,

and I don't, for the life of me, understand why you are giving him this issue.

At this point, I'm more worried about the liberals

than I am about the Dixiecrats.

We got to give them something this time, Dick.

- You know that. - You got to look like

you're giving them something.

All I'm saying is, don't work so hard to get this bill out of the House.

I do what I can.

Now, Lyndon, you're gonna talk poor Uncle Dick to death,

and here Zephyr's made his favorite dinner,

- and it's getting cold. - Saved by the belle.

Bird, you look beautiful as always.

And you are a terrible liar as always.

- Politician's curse. - LAUGHS

RUSSELL: So, do you like being the First Lady?

LADY BIRD: Well, it's been an adjustment.

- RUSSELL: I can imagine. - But I am enjoying it.

SIGHS

"Any jackass can kick a barn down,"

"but it takes a carpenter to build one."

You remember who told me that?

Sam Rayburn?

Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the House.

Oh, I could've kissed his bald head.

Thank you.

God knows I've been kissing his ass since the day I moved to Washington,

trying to get him to take notice of me.

SCOFFS

You know what Mr. Sam wanted?

- His greatest regret? - No, sir.

A towheaded boy to take fishing.

LAUGHS

Well, I heard that, and I did my damnedest to be that boy.

Suck-up? Yeah.

Brown-noser? Sure.

Kiss-ass? You bet. I heard them all.

Fuck you!

BOTH CHUCKLING

Everybody wants power, Walter.

Everybody.

And if they say they don't, they're lying.

Yes, sir.

But everybody thinks it ought to be given out, free of charge, like Mardi Gras beads.

Especially to them because, of course, they're gonna do good with it.

Nothing comes free.

Nothing.

Not even good.

Especially not good.

When the carpenter picks up his saw, if wood could talk,

it would scream.

HUMPHREY: You cannot cut voting rights out of the civil rights bill!

Well, you can't pass the civil rights bill with it, not this year.

You told Dr. King you wanted this bill passed without one word changed.

You don't go and sell a horse by talking about it

being blind in one eye and got the heaves.

They're gonna think you're just gutting the bill, sir.

Bullshit!

It's still a damn good bill.

Public housing, access, school desegregation...

Don't you tell me

- that ain't nothing, God damn it! - The liberal wing of the party

- will think you've betrayed them. - Well, those are your people.

- It's your job to bring them around. - My job?

Hell, yes. You're the great white hope of liberals everywhere.

Well, if I'm anything like what you say,

it's because people know I stand by my principles.

"Principles"? Shit.

This ain't about principles, it's about votes!

You know, that's the problem with you goddamn liberals.

You don't know how to fight.

- Mr. President... - You say you're the leader of the liberal wing

of the Democratic Party?

- Then show me some goddamn leadership! - Look out!

- I got no brakes! - Look out!

- No brakes! Hold on! - Jeez!

Hold on!

- What in... - LAUGHING

My... What?

I thought I was a goner.

- This is watertight. - Well, it's an amphibious car.

- It's a car and a boat. - I have never seen such a thing.

I wish I had a photograph of your face. Whoo!

- I've never. - Oh.

Do you wanna know what the ugliest sound in the world is, Hubert?

It's the tick-tick-tick of a clock.

All the men in my family die young.

I nearly died of that heart attack 10 years ago.

- A terrible time. - Yeah.

And I ain't got much time left.

You and me, we got till the convention in August,

while the people are still grieving Kennedy's death,

to get this bill passed.

Now, if we don't act now, this opportunity to do something about civil rights

will just disappear forever.

- Now, are you in or are you out? - Well, that...

Can you get the bill out of the House Rules Committee?

Leave Judge Smith to me.

- And voting rights. - Next year.

- No... - No, no, you have my word.

Gonna be a very, very difficult sell, Mr. President.

Oh. I know. I know.

That's why I want you to be the floor manager of this bill.

Floor manager?

- I assumed that Majority Leader Mansfield... - No, no!

Mike is a good man,

but, boy, I need someone more personable.

And people like you, Hubert.

Hell, even Dick Russell likes you.

- Well, I wouldn't go that far. - No, he does!

He does.

CHUCKLES

You know I'm under a lot of pressure to announce my running mate for the election.

Now, you show me

that you got the guts to push this thing through,

and you make yourself one very real candidate

to become my Vice President of the United States

- of America. - CHUCKLES

A step away from the White House.

And as we've seen,

anything can happen from there.

INSECTS CHIRPING

There's a barn owl out there in the live oaks hunting mice.

Is Hubert on board?

Yeah. EXHALES

One heart attack in a lifetime is plenty, thank you very much.

Why do I put up with you?

Because you would be lost without me.

King won't be so easy.

He won't trust me now, and I can't say I blame him.

He doesn't know you yet.

If I keep King's support, I risk losing Uncle Dick's.

I may have, in any case.

I always thought it would take a Southern president

to drag the South out of the past.

Shit, they're not gonna thank me for it.

KING: You promised this country a civil rights bill, Mr. President.

And the voting rights component is critical.

Absolutely critical, and we're gonna fix that.

Just not in this bill.

Right now, we're gonna take care

of segregation in public accommodations first.

I got it. I'll get that, Manny. Thank you.

You know every year, my cook, Zephyr Wright...

Oh.

Best damn chicken-fried steak you ever put in your mouth.

Well, every year, she and her husband drive my Packard

from Washington back down to the ranch for me.

Well...

Now, Zephyr, she can't use any restrooms on those highways

'cause they're all whites only.

She got to squat in a field by the side of the road to pee like a dog.

Now, that's just not right, and, by God, we're gonna fix that.

Well, nothing in this country will ever change until Negroes can vote.

The next bill will be voting rights.

After President Kennedy's election,

Eisenhower had publicly declared

that his party had taken the Negro vote for granted.

I would hate to see the Democratic Party make the same mistake.

If you think Barry Goldwater's a legitimate heir to Abraham Lincoln,

you should vote for him.

CHUCKLES

You know, civil rights isn't the only thing I'm interested in, Dr. King.

We got people in this country living in unbelievable poverty.

I know.

I grew up like that in the Hill Country.

CLICKS TONGUE

Picking cotton on my hands and knees,

harnessed like a mule to a road plow,

living off the bitter charity of my neighbors.

But we're gonna change all that.

We're gonna declare a war on poverty.

A war on poverty?

That's right.

Now, I got all kinds of federal programs in mind

on health, education, literacy, jobs, you name it.

We're gonna change this country top to bottom.

That sounds extraordinary.

LAUGHS There you go.

And I would very enthusiastically support legislation to that effect.

But right now,

I need to be able to go back to my people and tell them

that this president is committed to civil rights,

and that this bill, even without voting rights,

will still be a strong bill with no further changes.

If I can't do that, I'll lose their faith.

And in their despair, I...

I don't know what'll happen.

Is that a threat?

I don't want riots any more than you do.

But,

in order to avoid that type of situation,

I need to be able to deliver meaningful reform.

SIGHS

Okay.

Okay.

Now here's what I need.

The bill is stuck in Judge Smith's Rules Committee,

and I need at least eight votes... Walter! To pry it out.

Five Republicans and three Democrats.

Walter! Oh, good. All right, here.

Now, you get your people

in each one of these districts here, your ministers,

your clergy, your union guys, and what have you,

to lobby these House members to release that bill.

And lobbying is just like propositioning women, you know?

CHUCKLES

I knew this fellow once.

Ooh. He was a real ladies' man.

He got more pussy than you ever saw.

And I said to him, "What is your secret?"

And he said, "Well, I go into a bar",

"and I ask each woman if she'd like to fool around."

I said, "Boy, you must've got slapped a lot."

He said, "Oh, hell yeah."

"But I also got me a lot of yeses."

LAUGHS

Well, now,

we only need eight yeses

to get that bill out of Judge Smith's committee.

All right.

All right.

He said he'd get it out of committee

and, by God, he did.

Hallelujah.

And all it cost us was the voting rights section.

KING: The point is we can work with this president.

Now he's asking for our further assistance in lobbying Congress.

What do we have to lose?

Do we have to endorse his candidacy as well?

KING: You still plan on voting Republican this election, Bob?

ALL CHUCKLING

You know, Goldwater came out against civil rights,

purely on constitutional grounds, of course.

Yes, personally Goldwater deplores racism.

I just think asking for my vote while denying me the right to vote is bullshit.

The bill still gives us a lot.

Unless he gives that away, too.

I have his word there will be no more compromises.

His word? Are you serious?

I cannot support a bill without voting rights.

I'm not asking you to.

I'm asking you to not work against it.

The president is planning new legislation that will bring a huge federal intervention

to poverty, hunger, and jobs.

Think what that will do for our people.

- Forty acres and a mule. - MOSES: That's right.

What if he's serious?

MOSES: Okay.

We will not campaign against the bill,

but we're not gonna sit on our hands either.

What does the visionary Bob Moses propose?

Freedom Summer.

We are going to flood the state of Mississippi with hundreds of student volunteers

- to educate and register Negro voters. - ABERNATHY: You crazy.

- Mississippi? - Not just Negro volunteers.

White students, too.

If just one of your white volunteers gets hurt,

- you will do irreparable damage to the cause. - ABERNATHY: That's right.

Whereas if one of our Negro volunteers gets hurt, who gives a fuck?

There may be trouble,

but if it takes some white kid getting smacked around

to shed a little light on the darkness that is Mississippi,

- then why not? - Because people will die in Mississippi!

- Roy, people are dying in Mississippi. - Exactly. Exactly.

- We're not asking... - All right, all right, calm down.

Nobody in here gonna do anything they can't get behind.

But we should respond to the elimination of voting rights,

and Freedom Summer is the perfect way to do that.

At the same time, Roy, you are right.

The bill still does give us a lot.

No one in this room has your legislative experience.

So clearly, you and the NAACP should lead our lobbying efforts in D.C.

Mmm.

All right?

Yes, okay.

Gentlemen.

EXHALES

Lord have mercy.

One of these days, Stokely and Wilkins gonna kill each other

right there in the middle of the room.

In that case, we should sell tickets, so I can stop giving speeches.

LAUGHS

I know that's right.

First thing tomorrow,

let's reach out and get our membership mobilized on this new campaign.

Yeah.

You need anything else?

I'm okay.

Good night, then.

DOOR OPENS

Give me a minute.

KING MOANS

WOMAN MOANING

LAUGHING

Whoo!

The sex-mad preacher. LAUGHS

His hypocrisy is disgusting. The man is a flagrant adulterer.

Oh, my.

A Southern preacher who fucks his choir. Who ever heard of that?

LAUGHS

Oh, Edgar,

if you arrested every politician

and every preacher who ever strayed from the marital bed,

wouldn't be nobody in politics or the pulpit.

His moral turpitude is just the tip of the iceberg.

- Why, his Communist connections... - Edgar,

far be it from me to tell you how to do your job.

So keep an eye on him, sure,

but the House is about to vote on my civil rights bill.

And this

is not helpful.

- You understand me? - Yes, sir.

REPORTER ON TV: As part of Freedom Summer,

the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC,

is recruiting and training black and white college students from the North

and bussing them into Mississippi to register black voters.

Police have confronted the activists, leading to violent clashes.

MOSES: For two weeks, we've been training

to join other Freedom Summer organizers in Mississippi.

But I cannot emphasize enough to you the dangers you will face.

The federal government will not protect you,

and the Mississippi government will do everything it can to stop you.

If at any time you wish to quit,

you should do so, including now.

All right. Let's get started.

ALL SINGING Get on board

Children, children, get on board

Children, children, get on board

Children, children

Let's fight for freedom now

Get on board

Children, children, get on board

Children, children, get on board

INDISTINCT CHATTER

We will now call the House of Representatives to order

to consider House Bill 736,

the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

- SMITH: OVER SPEAKER Mr. Speaker. - Can you hear that?

This bill is nothing less than an assault on the Constitution

by the federal government.

APPLAUSE

Who are we

to tell the owner of a cafe who he can hire or who he can serve?

- CHEERING - BOOING

Who are we to tell a state

that they may not pass segregation laws?

As a conservative Republican,

I believe that state authority should not be needlessly usurped.

Hear, hear.

But I also believe that the Constitution doesn't say

that whites alone shall have our basic rights.

CHEERING

Didn't see that coming.

McCulloch is just playing to the peanut gallery.

Well...

Are you, Lyndon?

Is this just still so much red meat for Humphrey and his gang?

People aren't gonna stand for Jim Crow anymore, Uncle Dick.

I'm not saying the Negro hasn't been put upon.

He has been put upon most disgracefully.

But you can't rush these things. Look at the mess in Mississippi

with all those agitators going down there, getting in people's business.

Folks are gonna get hurt.

And whose fault would that be?

SMITH: Mr. Speaker,

I would like to introduce an amendment

that would exempt local businesses in public accommodations.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

For instance, if you were a podiatrist and had your office in a hotel.

MAN: Come on!

If I were cutting corns, I would wanna know

whose feet I was gonna have to be monkeying around with.

- MAN: Boo! - INDISTINCT CHATTER

Unbelievable.

I would want to know whether they smelled good or bad.

MAN: God's honest truth.

Podiatrists, like other minorities, got rights, too.

MAN 1: That's nonsense! MAN 2: Yes, sir!

To force them to work

violates the 13th Amendment's prohibition against slavery or involuntary servitude.

You know, if that's the best the judge has to offer,

he should've lost his chairmanship a long time ago.

- Lyndon. - CORMAN: Mr. Speaker.

I, for one, am fed up with amendments

that suddenly or blatantly defeat the purpose of this bill.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

And to my esteemed colleague, Judge Smith,

if you're going to trim the stinky, smelly white corns...

LAUGHTER

you're gonna have to do the same thing to the black ones.

LAUGHING That's telling him.

My goodness, man.

Call for a vote, for God's sake.

McCORMACK: With no more amendments to be offered,

the Speaker calls for a final vote on House Bill 736.

- Abbitt. - ABBITT: Nay.

Mr. Abbitt votes nay.

- Abele. - ABELE: Yea.

Mr. Abele votes yea.

- Adair. - ADAIR: Yea.

- Albert. - ALBERT: Nay.

MAN: Mr. Andrews from Alabama.

- ANDREWS: Nay. - Mr. Andrews votes nay.

Mr. Andrews from North Dakota.

- Yea. - MAN: Mr. Andrews votes yea.

Two-hundred and ninety votes for

and 130 votes against.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The bill passes and will now go to the Senate.

We got it, Walter. Thank you.

TURNS SPEAKER OFF

General Burnside thought he'd crush Lee at Fredericksburg.

His overconfidence cost him his army.

And only three years later, Lee surrendered at Appomattox.

Nobody's surrendering, Mr. President.

Thank you, Matthew. Most kind.

Mmm.

REPORTER ON TV: In St. Augustine, Florida,

Negro demonstrators were attacked today by an estimated 500 angry whites

- when they broke through police lines. - INDISTINCT TALKING

The conflict began when 200 Negro demonstrators,

led by Andrew Young and other civil rights leaders...

"Trust LBJ. He's one of us."

Is this the first time a civil rights bill made it through the House?

So the bill goes to the Senate. All right? So what?

How many civil rights bills have you buried in the last 10 years?

One-hundred and twenty-one.

That graveyard of yours got room for one more?

I'm digging a hole as we speak.

Well, all right, then.

If he does get it out of committee, what then?

Then we filibuster it to death.

We stick together, we'll be fine.

Public opinion's already against this bill, especially with those riots going on.

Time is on our side.

Thank you, gentlemen.

And I see no need why we ought to sit idly by

and see a bill pass in the American Senate called "a civil rights bill"

that will destroy individual liberty and freedom in this country.

PEOPLE CHEERING ON TV

HUMPHREY: Wallace is running at 90% with whites in eastern Maryland.

If he wins that primary, the Senate will never pass the bill.

Wallace would be dead in the water without these goddamn riots.

He is deliberately provocative.

King is supposed to control his people.

I put my entire political career at risk for the Negroes,

and this is the thanks I get?

- Put more money into Maryland. - Yeah,

beef up my schedule there.

Now, what's your plan to get our bill out of Eastland's committee?

Discharge petition.

Oh, shit. Why, you don't have the votes.

No, but we're very close.

Close? "Close" don't make shit.

You don't have the goddamn votes.

HUMPHREY: Fine, what's your idea?

What? I can't hear a goddamn thing you're saying, Humphrey.

Come on over here.

I said, what's your idea?

JOHNSON: Well, right now it's all about the rules of the Senate.

And Dick Russell's been studying them since he was sucking on his mama's titty.

Boy, I've seen him make a fool of you liberals with some arcane rule of order

more times than I can remember.

Hold on.

Ah! Son of a...

LAUGHING

GRUNTS

TOILET FLUSHING

You know what?

There is a way that we can completely bypass Eastland's committee

without a discharge petition.

And with a little luck,

Russell won't even see it coming.

RUSSELL: He did what?

MAN ON PHONE: I think the president just put over the bill out of committee.

All right.

All right, keep Jim calm.

I'll handle this.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

JOHNSON: What do you think it is, why it tastes a little different?

Well, it's the temperature she cooked... Everything all right, Uncle Dick?

Just peachy.

Would you like some more gravy?

Oh, Lady Bird, it was delicious, but I just couldn't possibly.

- No, thank you. - JOHNSON: Hey, what about me?

Aren't you gonna offer me any more gravy?

Well, honey, I'd like to, but I can't.

Bird's got me on a diet.

Got Zephyr there in the kitchen weighing my plates for every meal.

LAUGHING It's ridiculous.

Your wife just doesn't want you to get too big for your britches.

An entirely understandable concern.

I think I'll see how Zephyr's coming with that cobbler.

I just heard how you snuck that bill through Jim's committee

with some bogus procedural point of order.

A perfectly legal maneuver, Uncle Dick. Just like you taught me.

I also taught you something about party loyalty.

Well, the party's changing.

This younger generation's not gonna fall on their sword for segregation.

You think every Southerner is gonna start dancing to your tune? Hmm?

Wallace almost won Maryland.

But he didn't.

Another riot and he will. And there will be more riots.

We're gonna filibuster this bill. It will never pass.

Are you so sure about that?

I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking you're gonna cut a deal with Senator Dirksen.

You filibuster, what choice do you leave me?

A Democratic president ignoring his own party

and making a deal with the Senate Minority Leader. Shameful!

Now, don't you get all high and mighty with me.

You have been cutting deals

with those conservative Republicans for years,

but now I can't cross the aisle?

Shit.

We don't have to fight, Dick.

Yes, we do.

I'm coming for you, Dick.

Now, I love you more than my own daddy.

But if you get in my way...

I'll crush you.

I regret that the president

has embraced the radical program of the left-wing groups

that is erroneously called "the civil rights bill".

It is still a vicious assault on the Constitution.

And we in the Senate intend to fight with our boots on to the last ditch.

Beginning today, we will filibuster this bill.

Let the real war begin.

This ain't about the Constitution.

It's about those who got more wanting to hang on to what they got

at the expense of those who got nothing.

- And feel good about it. - Yeah.

But the way he frames it, draping himself in the Stars and Stripes,

it's compelling.

I mean, what are you fighting for, darling, in your heart?

That's what the people need to hear.

LAUGHS Look at that. Look at that. Look at the size of his ears.

- PEOPLE LAUGHING - You get that?

- LAUGHING - CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING

Whoo-hoo!

Well, listen, I just wanna thank you all for coming up here

and sharing some time with me.

I wanted to just respond to what Senator Russell...

His decision,

unfortunate decision on filibustering this bill.

It reminds me that when I got out of college...

Now, the only job that I could get

was teaching first grade at this

beat-up, old elementary school in Cotulla, Texas.

It was just a dusty, old border town in the middle of nowhere.

Full of Mexican immigrants who didn't have a pot to piss in.

But, God, did I love those kids of mine.

They'd show up hungry every morning

'cause most of them hadn't had any breakfast.

But they were so on fire to learn.

It just made you feel good.

But there'd come a day

for each and every one of them when I would see the light in their eyes die.

'Cause they had discovered that the world hated them

just 'cause of the color of their skin.

Well, some folks tell me just to go slow.

They say the political risk is too high.

And to that, I say, well,

if a president can't do what he knows is right,

then what's the presidency for?

- INDISTINCT ARGUING - GAVEL STRIKING

Senator Dirksen's so-called amendments

are like putting a Band-Aid on a cancer.

I have a real amendment to offer.

This map shows the current concentration of the Negro race in America.

I propose we resettle Southern Negroes all over the country

until racial proportions are equalized among the 50 states.

I favor inflicting on New York and other cities

the same conditions that will be inflicted by this bill

on the innocent people of Georgia.

- BOOING - CHEERING

- Is the president caving in? - SIGHS

I'd ask him myself, but he's no longer returning my calls.

Absolutely not.

My people have made every painful sacrifice that's been asked of them,

and the bill's still stuck.

Martin, I'm as frustrated as you are,

but lining up votes to break the filibuster's a complicated process.

Dirksen's amendments will gut the bill.

Dirksen needs to look tough to his people.

The time for posturing is over.

It's time to act.

I've put all my credibility on the line

telling our young people that this president can be trusted,

but they want results.

They're down in Mississippi right now

putting their lives at risk,

registering Negroes for a vote they still don't have.

I want a good bill, too, Martin,

but you can't give people blood tests for loyalty every 15 minutes.

The president will handle Everett Dirksen.

If this is what it takes to move the bill,

I will start a public fast to the death.

God, Martin, that's not necessary.

What choice do I have?

WOMAN: Right this way, Senator Dirksen.

Everett, what's this bullshit about how I treat my dog?

- I'm sorry? - My dog, Little Beagle Johnson.

Why are you being such a shitheel with the press about me pulling on his ears?

Little son of a bitch loves to have his ears pulled.

Hell, I thought you were running the Senate Republicans, not the ASPCA.

Mr. President, I was just kidding

- with the press about that. - Well, don't.

I'm a hell of a lot better than you are with dogs.

Dogs and people.

BOTH CHUCKLING

I was hoping we could talk about...

About appointing William Macomber as ambassador, I know.

- Well, yes, that among... - Get this shot. Get this shot here.

There we go.

No, no, sit on over there. It's more comfortable.

That among other things...

Well, we'll talk about all them things in just a minute.

JOHNSON EXHALES

Now, look here, Everett, we gotta get this civil rights bill passed.

- Yeah. - The longer this filibuster goes,

the stronger Russell gets,

and the angrier those Negroes on the street are.

Now, how many votes are we gonna get from your people?

Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about, Mr. President.

- There are 40 amendments I'm proposing. - Forty?

Well, my constituents have a number of concerns.

Now, let's not bullshit an old bullshitter here, Everett.

Let's just cut to the chase, shall we?

Well, I think we have to strike equal employment altogether.

Mmm.

I could probably get my troops to accept public accommodations.

But with, say, a year of voluntary compliance before it becomes law.

Nope.

- No? - No.

No?

There an echo in here?

The Southern filibuster cannot be defeated without substantial changes.

But if you're willing to compromise,

I think that I could deliver the necessary 25 Republican votes for cloture.

No can do, Everett.

Now, look here, either your people vote for this bill,

or you vote with the segregationists and the country goes up in flames.

Now, we're making history here, Everett.

And you have to decide how you want history to remember you.

As a great man,

a man who changed the course of this country,

or somebody who just likes to hear himself talk.

Congress is not alone in contributing problems to the presidency.

Mr. Johnson has inherited an armed clash in South Vietnam.

President Johnson must decide whether to continue it in its present form,

to enlarge it, or seek a negotiated settlement.

Our pilot the Communists shot down over Laos, he's alive?

As far as we know.

Well, hell, everything we can do to get him back home, Robert.

We'll talk more about this business in Tonkin.

- Yes, sir. - And, Walter, anything that McNamara needs,

- you make sure he gets it. - Yes, sir.

- Is Humphrey still around? - Hey, Daddy.

Hey, now, don't just run off. Come give me a hug.

LUCI: All right.

CHUCKLES

- Grae. - Mr. President.

Boy, oh, boy, look at you.

You're getting tall.

- No, I'm wearing heels. - Are you?

LAUGHS

Uh...

Well, how you doing in school, Luci?

Good, good.

- That's good. - Yeah.

- Sir, Senator Humphrey's here. - All right.

- That's all right. Bye, Daddy. - Bye.

The justice says Bob Moses of the Freedom Summer project

has asked again for federal protection.

Things are getting pretty violent in Mississippi.

The federal government is not getting involved in this.

Now, you make damn sure that the governor down there

understands that we expect him to put a lid on his people.

Is Khrushchev still in Egypt?

Yes, sir, and the Soviets had their first nuclear test

at their new site in Eastern Kazakh.

All right, talk to me, Hubert.

Well, the good news is we've got a deal with Dirksen.

And what's the bad news?

We're two votes short.

ELEVATOR DINGS

Bill! LAUGHS

I was just thinking about you. Go on, take a ride with me.

It's all right, boys. I think I'm safe with Senator Fulbright.

I'll see you up on three.

Boy, oh, boy, look at you.

- How you feeling? - Fine, fine.

Hey, listen, I need to talk to you about something.

Uh-huh. Nice cufflinks, Mr. President.

Oh, you like these?

- Do you? - I do.

Well, then they are yours.

No, no, that's really not necessary.

Well, I'd do anything for you, Bill.

Hey, you know that good old boy you put down for the federal bench?

Boy, that's a pretty tough sell for Humphrey's crowd,

but if you were to support the civil rights bill,

they'll just grin and bear it.

Well, Mr. President, I'm not sure my constituents would approve.

Well, I understand that,

but maybe you don't have to fight quite as hard as you might otherwise.

I don't think...

Or maybe when the vote comes up,

you happen to be overseas visiting our troops.

I'm sure Elizabeth would love Europe.

LAUGHS

You know she would. Like my wife.

Here, lookie here.

This is the seal of the presidency of the United States.

There's only two cufflinks like this in the entire world...

ELEVATOR DINGS

and you now own them both.

I want you to wear them in good health, Bill.

And think about what I said, huh?

You look good, Bill. I bet you dropped a few pounds, huh?

I'm gonna need another set of those cufflinks.

What the hell?

Walter. Walter!

Walter!

- Gerri, where's Walter? - Right here.

Why the hell is Senator Engle suddenly off my list?

He's paralyzed with a malignant brain tumor, sir.

- Recovering from surgery. - Holy shit.

- Well, is he conscious? - I don't know, sir.

Well, find out, God damn it.

If he's conscious, he can vote!

But I know my Bible.

And the Bible does not say that we cannot choose our own neighbor.

The Bible does not say

that we cannot build a wall betwixt ourselves and our neighbor.

JOHNSON: What I need is some help on this cloture vote.

No? Well, I'll tell you what protects a small state, Alan,

and it damn sure isn't a filibuster rule.

It's a strong president who's in your corner.

What? Now where on Earth do you get that...

Well, I don't forget these things. You understand me?

Son of a bitch. I thought I had him.

Now, for a man named Bible,

he sure doesn't have a handle on the New Testament.

APPLAUSE

This bill will guarantee the commercial destruction

of white people everywhere!

Senator Cannon, listen,

Carl Hayden and I are finally putting together the Central Arizona Water Project.

And if Nevada wants any part of this, I need your vote.

Yes, yes, yes, I know how Alan Bible feels about it,

but I'm talking to you now,

combat veteran to combat veteran.

Yeah.

Yeah, it is a big damn decision,

but Democrats have to stick together here.

Listen, now... No, Howard, just... Howard, listen to me, will you?

Just listen to me.

Now,

we both got tough election fights ahead of us here.

You know I'm gonna be there for you when it counts,

and can I count on you now?

Howard, you do the right thing here,

and you're gonna help yourself, and you're gonna help your state,

and you're gonna help your country.

Will you vote for cloture?

Howard, you're a good man. Thank you. Bye-bye.

- Sixty-seven votes! LAUGHS - Congratulations.

Should we let Senator Dirksen make the public announcement?

You think there's any way we can stop him? LAUGHS

JOHNSON: We believe all men are entitled to the blessings of liberty.

Yet millions are deprived of those blessings.

Not because of their own failures,

but because of the color of their skin.

This cannot continue.

Our Constitution forbids it.

The principles of freedom forbid it.

And the law I will now sign forbids it.

Thank you,

and good day.

APPLAUSE

CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING

MAN: Reverend King.

HUMPHREY: We did it.

We got it done.

MAN: Congratulations. HUMPHREY: Thank you.

There you go, Everett.

- Congratulations - I appreciate it.

- Thank you, Mr. President. - JOHNSON: Dr. King.

I need to see Dr. King, you hear.

- There you are. - Here, Mr. President.

- It's for you, sir. - It's an honor, Mr. President.

Likewise. Thank you.

- Hear, hear. - APPLAUSE

SIGHS

I'm sorry, Dick.

No, you're not.

It's not personal. It's just politics.

It's the passing of an era.

Well, yes, it is.

It's the passing of a time of etiquette, courtesy.

It's the passing of a time of principles like party unity.

You know what the old soldier said on parade?

"Hey, look, everybody's out of step but me."

Maybe.

I am old, that's true, and God knows I'm tired.

But the fellas coming up behind me are utterly without principle of any kind,

and you'll see how you like dealing with them.

You're gonna miss me when I'm gone.

I still need you, Dick.

I'm still here, Mr. President.

But the rest of Dixie?

I hope you haven't just killed your election chances.

Congratulations, Mr. President, on your glorious achievement.

The Democratic Party just lost the South for the rest of my lifetime,

and maybe yours.

What the fuck are you so happy about?

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

- MUSIC PLAYING - REPORTER: Senator Goldwater's triumph

takes the leadership of his party away from the eastern liberal block

and places it with the western conservatives for the first time since 1936.

JOHNSON: Clausewitz said...

Marjorie.

"Politics is war by other means."

Bullshit.

- Politics is war, period. - Congratulations, Daddy.

Thank you.

GOLDWATER ON TV: That moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

Let me remind you also

that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.

JOHNSON: You know how you win a campaign?

By not losing it.

Good morning, Mr. President.

JOHNSON: I only lost one election my whole life.

The son of a bitch stole it from me in the final seconds

with a handful of fake votes,

and I will carry the pain of that with me to my dying day.

But I'll tell you what.

Nobody will ever do me that way again.

GOLDWATER ON TV: that every fiber of my being...

JOHNSON: It'll be some other way.

GOLDWATER: that nothing shall be lacking from the struggle...

SIREN WAILING

INDISTINCT CHATTER ON RADIO

Out of the car, boys.

What's the problem, Deputy Price? I thought we were good.

Out of the car, Jew boy.

GUN COCKS

MAN: What you looking at, nigger?

- We've got a situation in Mississippi. - JOHNSON: Yeah?

Three young men have gone missing.

Michael Schwerner, age 25,

Andrew Goodman, age 21, and James Chaney, 21.

They were all working the Freedom Summer project in Meridian.

Chaney's a local Negro,

but Schwerner and Goodman were both out-of-state volunteers,

both white.

Well, the shit will hit the fan now.

Get me the governor of Mississippi.

They were investigating the burning of a Negro church in Neshoba County.

They've been missing for 15 hours now.

Missing in Mississippi?

Son of a bitch.

PHONE BUZZES

Yeah. All right, put him through.

Governor, I'm calling about those three boys.

You mean those three professional agitators.

Chaney, Schwerner, and Goodman.

Yeah, that come into our state creating all kinds of problems.

Apparently,

a Deputy Price arrested them yesterday afternoon.

For driving 35 miles over the speed limit.

- Really? - Yes, sir.

So they held them for a couple hours.

Oh, see, now that's where it gets confusing

'cause when their friends called the jail down there,

the deputy said he had never heard of them.

Well, I don't know anything about that.

Uh...

Price said he released them at 10:00 that night.

And nobody's heard of them since.

This is clearly a publicity stunt.

Well, those boys are off hiding somewhere,

probably having themselves a good laugh.

And they're gonna come back in,

they're gonna claim they were abused or something.

JOHNSON: Well, now I'd hate to have to send

a whole bunch of federal marshals into your state.

STUTTERS

Well, no, you don't wanna do that.

Of course I don't.

You don't want the publicity, and I sure as hell don't wanna stir up a mess

just eight weeks before the Democratic Convention.

But there's a lot of pressure to do something.

Now, if you'd rather,

I guess I can get a few FBI agents to look into the thing.

FBI?

Well, it's a damn sight better

than the federal marshals and the US Army, isn't it?

Well, yes, I guess that would.

Yeah, you know, I think you got the right idea there, Governor.

Let this be Hoover's problem, not ours.

Hopefully, you're right about the whole thing,

and these boys will turn up quick, and we can all just relax.

Christ's sake, we got an election to win.

Hoover will just drag his feet.

Not if I light a fire under his ass.

Mr. President.

Uh, Edgar,

the governor of Mississippi wants the FBI to look into these missing kids.

Well, I'd be happy to, Mr. President, but there's a jurisdictional problem.

Well, I'm not gonna tell you how to run your shop,

but the governor asked specifically for the FBI to investigate.

I tried to put him off, but, well, I suppose I could get some third party involved.

I know Senator Jim Eastland wants Allen Dulles investigating.

CIA? Oh, no, Mr. President.

I don't think Dulles is a good idea. This is very clearly an FBI matter.

Well, if you're sure.

I mean, the last thing I would want is Dulles down there

acting like he was running the FBI as well.

I'll tell you what, let's say Eastland is my problem.

I'll just deal with him.

You get your agents down there to Neshoba County,

and you just wrap this thing up quick, yeah?

When did you talk to Eastland about Dulles going down there?

Oh, I made that part up.

The problem here is there's three sovereignties involved.

There's the United States, there's the state of Mississippi,

and then there's J. Edgar Hoover.

REPORTER: The burned-out station wagon was discovered in the woods

20 miles from Philadelphia, Mississippi,

a small town in which Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney

had been arrested for speeding during the day.

They were released late at night by a deputy sheriff

and were last seen driving away in the blue station wagon.

We have to assume those young men are dead.

There were no bodies in the car they found.

Well, then they're probably on vacation, huh, Mr. Wilkins.

I mean, I always set my car on fire before taking a weekend off.

How many voters have you actually registered?

- Twelve hundred, give or take. - Mmm.

Five hundred beaten and arrested, 35 churches burned,

30 Negro homes and businesses dynamited for 1,200 votes.

It's not just about the votes.

For the first time, black people are building a new political party.

The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, I heard.

Hold on. We tried to play by the rules of the regular Democrat Party,

but they kept us out.

Fine. So we built our own Democrat Party, but with a difference.

Open to everybody, white or Negro.

Well, don't you think that America ought to have

at least one political party that isn't racist?

It's a waste of time.

We send our delegates to the convention

where they challenge the legality

of the segregated Mississippi delegation on national TV

and dare LBJ not to seat us.

CHUCKLING

Children playing with dynamite.

Are you so desperate for their approval

that you would sanction this mass suicide?

Those young men went down to Mississippi and died

doing the work the government hasn't been willing to do

for 100 years.

We've got to take a stand.

I grieve for those young men.

Don't use their funeral pyre to burn what's left of the movement.

How can I help, Bob?

- Come to Mississippi. - Don't be ridiculous.

Show the people that you are behind the Mississippi Freedom...

You might as well paint a target on his back and declare open season.

Martin, you have not been to Mississippi in over a year.

ABERNATHY: He's been busy.

Death threats, jail, shot at.

- You don't own a monopoly over suffering. - I never said that I did.

Let somebody else carry this one, Martin.

Please.

Of course I'll come.

JENKINS: FBI was acting on a tip about a farm in rural Mississippi,

and they just found two bodies buried there in an earthen dam.

JOHNSON: Jesus. Are they sure it's them?

Schwerner's draft card in his back pocket. Goodman's body right below his.

It appears they had both been shot once in the chest.

And they're still digging for Chaney.

God damn.

Bless those boys.

The minute McNamara gets here, you send him in.

Gentlemen, we need to pick up this conversation some other time.

I'm sorry.

CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS

It's obvious that this Deputy Price was involved in that.

Probably the sheriff, too.

Oh, Lord.

Well, this whole mess is in my lap now.

If I don't charge these bastards,

then King yells that I'm letting them get away with murder.

But if I do charge them, then all the Southerners scream

about how I'm taking orders from the Negroes,

and all this two weeks before the start of the goddamn convention.

Mr. President, I'm sorry to have to tell you,

but the word is Governor Wallace has offered himself to Goldwater

as the Republican vice presidential candidate.

That little weasel would sell his mother to get a leg up.

And Strom Thurmond is formally switching parties.

That motherfucker!

Is anybody gonna follow him?

- Well, I don't know. - Well, find out.

You bet I will.

God damn it.

SIGHS

You see her on TV?

- Who? - The...

The dead kid's wife, Schwerner.

Uh... Rita, Rita.

Wife. Widow, I mean.

- Christ. - Terrible.

DOOR OPENS

Mr. President, we have word.

No, no. Come on.

Yeah. Sit there.

All right, Robert.

Captain Herrick of the USS Maddox reports a potential sighting last night

of two possibly hostile unidentified vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin.

And some somewhat contradictory sonar evidence

of actual torpedo attack.

Uh...

"A potential sighting"? What the hell's a potential sighting?

A visual sighting not confirmed by mechanical means.

And this torpedo attack, this actually happened?

Still awaiting confirmation.

Well, were any of our ships hit?

No, sir.

- Were there any explosions? - No, sir.

Then how the hell do we know we were attacked?

We don't, for sure.

We have contradictory sonar readings.

For God's sake, Robert.

Give me something I can work with here.

Officially, this is a very delicate subject.

Oh, Humphrey can know.

Mr. President, the limited air strikes you ordered pre-selected

- in case of another attack are good to go. - Air strikes?

- Shall we order them in? - Surely, this is a situation

about which we ought to be more confident before we act.

There's no sense in pretending last night's event didn't happen, not anymore.

- What do you mean? - There's been a leak somewhere.

- Who? Who leaked it? - We're tracking it down.

I want his fucking head in a basket!

The point is, the press has got to it somehow.

God damn it.

Now there are domestic considerations as well.

Yeah, Goldwater.

Don't retaliate,

he will play all the angles against you.

All this soft-on-military bullshit.

Christ, the Democrats beat Hitler and T-oj-o.

What more do we have to do?

You want me to call in the retaliatory strikes?

For an attack which may or may not have happened?

Planes are ready to go on your command.

Mr. President, this puts you in a terrible position.

- You are essentially going to have to lie. - Mr. President!

Do it.

Yes, sir.

If it gets out, we'll pass it off on our South Vietnamese allies.

- Mr. President... - What, you think I like this?

Putting my ass in a sling

- this close to the election? - Sir...

Or maybe you think Goldwater ought to be president.

- Is that it? - I never said that.

That maniac wants to lob an A-bomb

into the Kremlin's bathroom and start World War III.

- You see how you like that. - Mr. President, come on.

If Goldwater gets elected, you can forget about poverty.

You can forget about civil rights. Is that what you want?

Now, I'm trying to turn this country around and prevent a major war!

Christ, why the hell did I ever consider you for my vice president?

First sign of trouble, you cut and run.

I'm not running anywhere, Mr. President.

I'm standing right here beside you.

Precious cold comfort you are.

You know, Congress is gonna back me on this.

It's election year.

I'll get them to pass some kind of resolution

authorizing me full authority over there.

Then we can get back to things that really matter.

DOOR OPENS

- JENKINS: Sir? - What?

They found Chaney's body.

God damn it.

REPORTER: The bodies of the three missing civil rights workers,

Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman,

were found in a grave at the base of an earthen dam

outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi.

Their bodies were wrapped in plastic bags numbered one, two, and three.

They were taken to the medical center in Jackson for examination.

Far too small

Love so amazing

Love so divine

Demands my soul

My life

My all

ALL: Amen.

James Chaney gave his life

to make this country live up to its forgotten promises

and unfulfilled ideals.

- WOMAN: Yes, he did. - We all know

the terrible pain you must be feeling in your hearts.

MAN: That's right.

But we will not live in despair.

MAN: No.

We will not surrender.

MAN: No.

We will continue

to respond to their violence with love and forgiveness.

ALL: Amen.

As I stand here...

WOMAN: Who said that? Who said that?

I not only blame the people who pulled the trigger

or dug the hole with their shovel.

I blame the state of Mississippi,

all the way on up to the people in Washington for what happened.

- Now, that's enough of that! - No.

It's all right.

Come on up here.

I'm sick and tired of going to funerals for black men

who have been murdered by white men.

WOMAN: Yes.

- Are you? - ALL: Yes!

Are you sick and tired of this stuff like I am?

ALL: Yes!

I'm not feeling sad tonight, Dr. King.

I'm not feeling forgiveness.

WOMAN: Preach.

I've got vengeance in my heart!

And I'm asking you to feel angry with me.

- ALL: Yes. - Are you angry?

ALL: Yes!

The white men who murdered James Chaney are never gonna be punished!

MAN: That's right!

The best way to remember James Chaney

is to demand our rights.

If you go back home and take what these white men are doing to us...

If you take it and don't do something about it,

then God damn your souls!

Stand up!

INDISTINCT MURMURING

- We got to stand up in Meridian! - Yeah!

We got to stand up in Jackson!

ALL: Stand up!

And when we get to Atlantic City,

- what are we going to do? - ALL: Stand up!

- Stand up! - ALL: Stand up!

- Stand up! - ALL: Stand up!

- Stand up! - ALL: Stand up!

ALL CHANTING Stand up! Stand up!

Stand up! Stand up!

Stand up! Stand up!

One man, one vote! One man, one vote!

One man, one vote!

One man, one vote! One man, one vote!

You must seat the MFDP.

- Martin, it's not that simple. - Yes, it is.

Now, you don't understand the depth of feeling among my people.

These murders, they've rocked the movement.

If the government does not do what is right here,

nonviolence will no longer be an option.

REPORTER: You can see a largely Negro delegation

from a Southern state appear here,

claiming to be an alternative delegation.

It's something I don't think has happened in the Democratic Convention

perhaps since Reconstruction days.

And according to the Freedom Democratic representatives,

Dr. Henry, who is their chairman,

Dr. Martin Luther King, they are not going to accept any compromise

short of having some kind of a vote in this convention.

Well, I'll certainly take that under consideration, John.

REPORTER ON TV: this delegation being seated, and the other...

John Connally, the governor of my own state, just told me, "You seat those black buggers",

"not only will Texas quit, but the whole South will walk out."

We might as well kiss the whole goddamn election good-bye.

What the hell do you want?

The ballot in Alabama, sir,

apparently Governor Wallace kept your name off it.

That little piece of shit.

- Can he do that? - Of course he can.

Goldwater must be laughing his ass off.

And now they're just threatening to walk out of the whole goddamn convention!

Son of a bitch.

Lyndon, why don't you take a break from this for a while?

Oh, I'm fine, Bird.

Well, you certainly don't sound fine.

- When's the last time you ate anything? - Go away, Bird.

You're giving me a goddamn headache.

Well, honey, I'm just worried.

Would you leave me alone?

Go on, get out of here!

Go on!

REPORTER ON TV: watching over every aspect

and every detail in this process...

engaged by the Mississippi delegation here tonight.

CRYING

KNOCK ON DOOR

LADY BIRD: Oh.

Thank you.

I feel so sorry for him.

I know.

Thank God he has you, Walter.

And you.

You think he's hard on me?

Well, he's hard on everybody, especially himself.

People don't see that.

But I do.

I see everything.

His lady friends.

But I'm the one he chose. Hmm.

At the end of the day...

I'm the one he comes home to.

SIGHS

My money paid for his first campaign, did you know that?

I had to face down my own daddy over my inheritance to get it.

By God, it was the best investment I ever made.

CHUCKLES SOFTLY

My lipstick okay?

You look beautiful.

No, I'm not.

But you make do with what you got.

And whatever happens, you don't quit.

REPORTER: CBS News correspondent Mike Wallace here

at the ballroom of Convention Hall

where the credentials committee

of the Democratic National Party are in session.

And now we are hearing

from the Freedom Democratic Party representatives of Mississippi.

Just tell the credential committee what happened in Mississippi, Miss Hamer.

CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING

On January 9th, 1963, I went to a meeting

to learn how to register Negro voters in Mississippi.

On my way back,

I was arrested by the Winona police chief and taken to the county jail.

After I was placed in a cell,

state highway patrolmen

ordered me to lay facedown on the bunk bed, saying,

"You're gonna wish you was dead."

Now who the hell is this?

HUMPHREY: Fannie Lou Hamer, a sharecropper's daughter.

Became one of the leaders of the MFDP.

For Christ's sake.

And then he ordered

two male Negro prisoners to beat me with a blackjack.

The first prisoner beat me till he was exhausted.

And then the patrolman ordered the second Negro to beat me.

- This is awful. - It sure as hell is.

She could stampede the liberals into seating the MFDP,

and the South will storm out of the convention in droves.

Walter!

Walter, you tell the press

we got a major announcement in the Rose Garden.

- What's the announcement? - Hell if I know!

Anything to turn off those goddamn cameras in Atlantic City.

I began to scream.

And one white man hit me in my head and told me to hush.

My dress had worked up high, so I pulled it down.

And another white man walked over and pulled it back up.

All this

on account of we wanna register to vote.

And if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated at this convention,

I question America.

Is this America?

The land of the free and the home of the brave

where our lives be threatened daily

'cause we wanna live as decent human beings.

All we're asking

- is fair representation of this... - MAN: Hold on.

REPORTER ON TV: The president is going to announce his address

at the White House in just a few moments.

ANNOUNCER: Please stand by for the President of the United States.

Uh, howdy.

- First of all, I wanna thank y'all... - I don't understand.

- What's going on? - It appears, Miss Hamer,

we've been preempted by the President.

- I know a lot of people are... - Come on.

Still wondering

who my vice presidential candidate will be.

And we'll make that decision very, very soon, I promise you that.

I think now I can open it up, and if you'd like to ask a few questions.

I need to know everything that King and that Fannie Lou person and Bob Moses

and all those goddamn people in the MFDP are talking about.

I want them under constant surveillance, the whole bunch of them.

Mr. President, we don't have any warrant.

Well, that never stopped you before, did it?

Now, I don't care what you do or how you do it.

In fact, it's better if I don't know.

But everything you get, you send it immediately to Walter.

- You understand? - Yeah.

- Uncle Dick. - You're up awful late, Mr. President.

You're gonna give yourself another heart attack.

Well, if I do, it'll be the Dixiecrats and Martin Luther King put me in my grave.

You hear of this public telegram of King's demanding that I seat the MFDP?

The whole country will think

that Negroes have more power in the Democratic Party

than the president has, and the whole South will bolt.

I warned you about that.

You know what I think?

I think this is something that King cooked up with Bobby Kennedy to embarrass me.

Now, listen, Kennedy is gonna stab me in the back

and steal this nomination at the last minute.

Mr. President, Robert Kennedy has no interest whatsoever

in hurting you or helping Barry Goldwater.

Then the hell with them all.

I'm gonna go back home to my ranch and the people who love me.

I never wanted to be president in the first place.

Mr. President, forgive my frankness, but you are speaking like a spoiled child.

You and I both know you're not serious.

Now take a tranquilizer, go to sleep.

Thank you.

I walked into the lion's den, I argued fervently,

I used all the heartstrings I had.

I made no headway.

God damn it.

The least the MFDP might be willing to accept

would be some actual votes at the convention, a few votes.

Well, what did King say?

He's very supportive of their leadership on this.

After everything I did for him, he should've stood up for me!

Why didn't somebody stand up for me?

I stood up for you, Mr. President.

Somebody who matters.

Well, if you don't think my loyalty is important...

Jesus, you are so thin-skinned.

Shit.

I depend on you, Hubert, you know that.

Christ's sake, there's got to be a solution here.

Well, maybe we can get

one or two of the Mississippi regulars to agree to step aside.

They claim they're sick or something.

All right.

You tell them that they can have two voting delegates.

We'll call them "at large delegates."

But one of them has to be that white minister of theirs.

Reverend Edwin King.

That's him, that's him.

That way, it's one white man and only one Negro.

We'll integrate their delegation.

Who could argue with that, huh?

I'll see what I can do.

Well, don't "see" what you can do!

You do what I tell you to do.

Mr. President.

What you think of Hubert?

I think he's working as hard as he can.

Yeah.

He's nice.

Nice is what you call a gal with no tits, no ass, and no personality.

Nice is for kissing babies.

There's no place for nice in a knife fight.

You get me Walter Reuther.

Mr. President, what a pleasant surprise.

JOHNSON: Well, Reuther, I know how important

your golden boy Humphrey is to you

and the rest of organized labor.

But if this big delegate war comes off and the South walks out of the convention,

he will have no future in the Democratic Party, you hear me?

Yes, sir, but I really must...

Now, you need to tighten your leash

and bring King and the MFDP in line or, by God,

Hubert Humphrey is never gonna be my vice president or anything else!

- Sir, I... - He won't be able to get elected dogcatcher,

and you won't have nobody in the Senate to carry water for you.

Now you get yourself down to Atlantic City and fix this mess, and I mean now!

Are you all right, sir?

I do not have the hide of a rhinoceros.

You know me, Walter.

I have a genuine desire to unite people,

but my own people in the South, they're against me,

and the North is against me, and the Negroes are against me,

and the press sure doesn't have any damn affection for me.

It's not fair, sir, not with all you've done.

I could drop dead tomorrow,

and there wouldn't be 10 people who'd shed a tear.

Ah, no. No, sir. That's not true, sir.

The hell it ain't.

People turn on you so fast.

When my daddy lost everything,

people who had been glad-handing him just treated him like dog shit.

They humiliated him to his face,

in public.

And my mother...

EXHALES

The way she'd freeze him out.

That's what killed him.

You know what I think it is?

People think I want great power,

but what I want is great solace.

A little love.

That's all I want.

GRUNTING SOFTLY

COUGHS

You have that from us, sir.

From me.

Poor Marjorie must be wondering where the hell you are.

- Oh, she understands. - Jesus.

How many kids you got again? What is it, five?

- Six. - Six.

- Two girls and four boys. - Phew!

Right, Catholic.

BOTH CHUCKLING

I always wanted a son.

Don't get me wrong, I love Luci and Lynda,

but a man wants a son.

I reckon you're as close to that as I've got.

CHUCKLES SOFTLY

EXHALES

Walter, you'll be right outside?

Yes, sir.

REUTHER: Martin.

Mr. Reuther.

Didn't expect to see you here.

Well, neither did I.

I got a call from the president with a generous helping of the Texas twist.

You've got to get the MFDP to compromise.

Well, what the president offered was an insult.

These people have shed their blood...

Martin, your funding is on the line.

You've gotta get the MFDP on board,

or there will be no more union money for the movement,

not a single goddamn dime.

You would sabotage the entire civil rights movement over this?

No, you would.

The number of delegates at a convention, who gives a shit?

- It's wrong. - Look, there will be a final offer.

You get your people to accept it,

or you can take your tin cup and your principles

out onto the street and see how far that gets you.

- MUSIC PLAYING - PEOPLE CHANTING

LBJ! LBJ! LBJ!

ANNOUNCER: Will the delegates please be seated?

- What do we want? - ALL: Freedom!

- When do we want it? - Now!

- What do we want? - ALL: Freedom!

- When do we want it? - ALL: Now!

Which side are you on? Everybody, now

Which side are you on, Lord?

- Which side are you on? Everybody, now - Which side are you on?

Martin. Just...

Which side are you on, Lord?

I want everyone to hear this.

I'm pleased to say that we've come up with a mighty fine compromise.

The MFDP will get two voting delegates, Aaron Henry and Edwin King.

And the Democratic Party will adopt a formal rules change

to prohibit any segregated delegation in the future.

This is a major victory.

Senator Humphrey, God did not send us to Atlantic City

- for no two seats. - MOSES: That's right.

When all of us is tired.

This is just like the white plantation bosses

making all the decisions for his black sharecroppers.

Hold on, Bob.

You've won your case in the court of public opinion.

Now you've got your token representation.

- "Token"? - Don't twist my words, Aaron.

What I am saying is that there's a whole lot at stake here,

and this is a necessary political compromise.

We are not here to bring politics to our morality.

We are here to bring our morality to our politics.

Dr. King, what do you think we ought to do?

If I were a Mississippi Negro, been through what you've been through,

- I'd vote against it. - Right.

But the solemn commitment

to end discrimination in all future conventions

- is a mighty big victory... - Yes, it is.

In which the MFDP can take real pride.

And as a Negro leader, I'm asking...

I want you to take this.

Wade in the water

Wade in the water, children

Wade in the water

God's a-gonna trouble the water

See that host all dressed in white?

Well done, Dr. King.

Solomon himself couldn't have cut that baby in half any cleaner.

I may lose a battle, Bob,

I personally may not survive, but I will win this war.

All the way with LBJ.

LBJ is not the second coming.

He's just like every other politician.

He'll do what it takes to get elected.

But I think he really wants civil rights.

Now, we've got a chance here, Bob.

A real chance.

Best chance in 100 years, and I will not throw it away.

ANNOUNCER: Will the delegates please be seated?

A workable compromise regarding at large delegates

- from Mississippi has been reached. - All right.

All right, that's it. We're leaving. Come on.

And we urge the delegates here to approve the recommendations

- of the credentials committee. - Jim, what the hell's going on?

LBJ screwed us over.

He's seating the niggers.

You boys just stay here. I'll figure this out.

REPORTER ON TV: The credentials committee settled on a compromise

of two voting delegates for the MFDP,

but Mississippi and Alabama rejected the deal and walked out.

If Georgia walks out next,

- the rest of the South will follow. - Mr. President?

It's Governor Sanders of Georgia on the phone.

What, it's Georgia?

What the hell does Carl want?

Alabama and Mississippi are walking out, and Sanders says he might follow.

God damn it!

GRUNTS

Carl, what the hell is going on?

Mr. President, you can't give these people two seats.

It's gonna look like the Negroes are taking over the whole convention.

Oh, for Christ's sake, it's one Negro and one white minister.

Now, it's the principle of the thing.

Me and my delegates are about inches from walking out.

In fact, the whole South's about to bolt.

All right, now let's you and me understand something here.

Those people are Democrats just like you and me,

but those good old boys from Mississippi, they locked them out.

Well, now they got locked out because they're not registered to vote.

Because they wouldn't let them register!

They beat them and shot them and lynched them.

Well, now you're tarring a lot of people here, Mr. President.

No, Carl, Carl, you and I just can't survive our modern political life

with these goddamn fellas down there doing things the old way

and eating them Negroes for breakfast every morning.

They got to quit that!

Mr. President, you need to remove these so-called "delegates at large."

No, you listen to me!

You need to make up your mind once and for all

what kind of Christian you are.

Are you a once-a-week fella, or do you hold the Word in your heart?

And what kind of politician are you?

You just out for yourself,

or you wanna make a better life for all the people of Georgia?

- Well, of course I... - And what kind of man are you?

You got the balls to do what you know is right,

or do you just slink away?

Now, what you don't get to do is threaten me.

So if you're gonna walk out of the convention, then you just do it right now!

But if not,

then I expect to see your bright and shiny faces

wearing your big "All the way with LBJ" hats tonight

when I take the stage.

Bird, go away and leave me be.

I can't do that, Lyndon.

I won't.

You're just like the rest of them.

You're all against me.

That is so not true.

- Oh, yeah? - Look at me.

Look at me, Lyndon.

You are as brave a man as FDR and Truman and Lincoln.

And there are many, many people up there at that convention

and in this party

and in this nation who love you.

- And they are counting on you. - I'm gonna resign.

- Let somebody else deal with this. - You're not going to resign.

- Yes, I am! - No, you are not!

When your great-grandmother was hiding in the floorboards

while the Comanches were raiding her house, did she flinch?

To step down now would be wrong for your country.

Your friends would be frozen with embarrassment,

and your enemies would jeer.

Those bastards would love to see me down.

And are you gonna give them that pleasure?

I don't think so.

That is not the man I married.

Sir, Governor Sanders was just on TV,

and the Georgia delegation's not gonna walk out after all.

- What, Sanders backed down? - Yes, sir, he did.

- So the South held? - Yes, sir.

PEOPLE CHEERING

ANNOUNCER: The honorable Lyndon B. Johnson

is nominated by acclamation

as our candidate to the office of President of the United States,

and the honorable Hubert Horatio Humphrey is our candidate for Vice President!

The dust has settled here in Atlantic City,

and President Johnson's Democratic Party is one big, happy family.

- Hello there! - CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

- Hubert. - Mr. President.

You look a little down in the mouth for being the next vice president.

It just feels different than I thought it would.

JOHNSON: Oh, that. Well...

You get over that pretty quick.

ANNOUNCER: The American people have no greater advocate and friend

than the man the Democratic Party is proud to claim as our leader.

Now the man of the hour, Lyndon Baines Johnson!

CROWD CHEERING

MUSIC PLAYING

We're down five points in Georgia, six points in South Carolina,

eight points in Louisiana.

Hell, Goldwater is beating my ass by 60% in Mississippi.

Now, he's getting on top!

Son of a bitch is turning it around!

Where the hell are the ideas?

Where the hell's the solutions?

Walter, I want you to change my travel schedule.

Give me more time in the South, especially Louisiana.

And put more money into

- our TV campaign down there. - Yes, sir.

And as for the rest of you, what the hell are you still standing here for?

Get out there and do something!

Come on.

Not you, Humphrey. Stay here.

You read this bullshit Wall Street Journal exposé about my corruption?

Definitely planted by Goldwater.

Damn right it was.

Take a look at this. Huh?

That's disgusting.

Goldwater wants to get down into the mud, by God, I could do that.

Listen here, I want you to pull together a special group separate from the campaign

and hit him back with everything we got!

Mr. President, I don't think sinking to their level is...

Oh, for God's sake, just do it.

Mr. President, you are ahead in the polls in most of the country.

Yeah, and so was Nixon in '60.

And some people thought he would've beat Jack

except for a whole bunch of dead people voting in Chicago at the last minute.

It ain't over until it's over.

Eight, nine...

- Nine... - MAN: eight, seven,

six, five,

four, three,

two, one,

zero.

JOHNSON: These are the stakes

to make a world in which all of God's children can live

or to go into the dark.

We must either love each other,

or we must die.

Vote for President Johnson on November 3rd.

The stakes are too high for you to stay home.

I want you to run this right away.

It'll be controversial. You'll get a lot of flak.

Then, we'll only have to run it once and let the press do our work for us.

I wanna see it again.

CROWD CHEERING

Now, Barry Goldwater says he's not a racist.

But the government can't legislate what people feel in their hearts.

- That's right! - And he's right.

The law can't make white folks love you.

But the law can prevent them from lynching you.

Yes!

The law can prevent them from denying you a job

and your child an education.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

And the law can ensure that you have the right to vote.

- Amen! - Yes!

I'm not here today to tell you fine people who to vote for.

But come election day,

let's be sure to send the fine senator from Arizona

and his tender heart back to the desert where he belongs.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Walter was arrested?

YMCA men's bathroom by the D.C. Vice Squad.

The other man arrested was an army staff sergeant.

No, no, no.

- This must be some kind of mistake. - No, sir.

Apparently, Walter was arrested under similar circumstances five years ago.

Now, why didn't I know that?

- HOOVER: None of us knew. - CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING

This has Goldwater's fingerprints all over it.

Goldwater will use this.

Goddamn, this close to the election, it could be the whole ball of wax!

There doesn't appear to be any security compromise at all.

There damn well better not be.

Your people said they vetted him.

I have it in writing with your goddamn signature on it.

- There are some things you can't predict. - That's your job, Edgar.

I will take care of this, Mr. President.

And why don't that make me feel any better?

You get a hold of Walter's Air Force Reserve records.

Goldwater was his commanding officer.

With any luck, he signed off on his fitness evaluations.

We get a hold of those, and Goldwater won't be able to say shit!

Walter will resign immediately.

You see to it that his doctor issues a statement.

Um, he was working too hard and just snapped.

I've been working with that man for 25 years

and not a clue.

How do you know when

somebody's...

Well, there's certain signs, mannerisms.

The way a man dresses or combs his hair.

Walks kind of funny.

EXHALES

Well, that's news to me.

I'm not questioning you.

I'm sure you'd know.

In your line of work, I mean.

LADY BIRD: Marjorie is just beside herself.

Can't believe it's true.

I can't believe it's true.

I am going to make a public statement of support.

Absolutely not.

The First Lady can't be involved in this.

None of us can be involved.

Why, he's distraught, Lyndon.

He could injure himself.

That is not my problem.

What...

He is our friend.

He was our friend, and then he stabbed me in the back.

What, are we just never gonna see him again?

What, you think I like this?

Now Goldwater's killing me in the polls.

I loved Walter like a...

I'm holding this campaign together with baling wire and spit.

And if you're not with me, then you're against me.

I know why you think you have to do this, darling.

But you're wrong. You do what you must.

But I will not abandon our friend.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have speeches to deliver.

God damn it.

CAR ENGINE STARTS

REPORTER: In what is sure to be a very controversial decision,

the winner of this year's Nobel Prize for Peace

is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am deeply moved and humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee

who are devoted to the nonviolent pursuit

of those rights to which every man and woman...

How will you want to acknowledge Dr. King?

I won't.

King knows where I stand.

I don't need to get on the goddamn rooftops and shout it out.

Movement of many peoples

who are devoted to the nonviolent pursuit of those rights...

I'm supposed to have psychic abilities

in order to protect the president from deviants like Jenkins,

but when it comes to King, apparently no warning is strong enough.

This award should be given to the American civil rights...

Get me the sex tapes of King with those women.

And a typewriter.

WOMAN MOANING

"King, you know you are a complete fraud"

"and a great liability to all of us Negroes."

Sir, are you sure the president will be comfortable with this?

Doesn't matter.

"King, you cannot believe in God."

"Clearly you don't believe in any moral principles."

"You could have been our greatest leader,"

"but you turned out to be nothing but a dissolute,"

"abnormal moral imbecile."

"You are a colossal fraud, and an evil, vicious one at that,"

"and you had better kill yourself before your filthy, fraudulent soul"

"is bared to the nation."

PEOPLE CHANTING Goldwater! Goldwater!

Goldwater! Goldwater!

Goldwater! Goldwater!

What the hell is wrong with these people?

It's a Democratic rally, for Christ's sake!

- Where's the governor? - Left an hour ago.

Suddenly called out of town.

Cowardly son of a bitch.

I've had enough of this horseshit.

Let's get a move on. Move!

And now... Now let's give a nice, warm New Orleans welcome

to the President of the United States!

CROWD BOOING

All right. All right!

You've had your say, and now I'm gonna have mine.

My fellow Southerners, please.

I once got to know this old senator from the South

who lamented to me

the condition of our beloved region.

The old senator talked about how outside forces

divided and conquered the people of the South

by appealing to their racial hatred.

I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement

which is working to establish

a reign of freedom and a rule of justice.

For only yesterday in Alabama,

our children, crying out for brotherhood,

were met with water hoses, dogs, and even death.

Now, the old senator described

what a great future the South could have

if only we'd all work together.

Only yesterday in Mississippi,

young people seeking the right to vote

were brutalized and murdered.

And the old senator talked longingly

about going home one more time

and telling people the truth.

He said his poor state hasn't heard the truth in 30 years.

All we ever hear at election time

is, "Nigger! Nigger! Nigger!"

Well, I'm not gonna let them build up the hate.

I'm not gonna let them trick my people by appealing to their prejudice.

I believe peoples everywhere

can have dignity, equality,

and freedom.

We have a new law of the land.

A civil rights law.

APPLAUSE

And I'm gonna enforce it

'cause it is the right thing to do!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

REPORTER: ABC News continues its coverage of Election '64.

President Johnson, though he's doing extremely well

in winning and carrying states,

has not yet reached the position the polls gave him.

REPORTER 1: The figures have just come in.

Georgia, which has never deserted the Democratic Party,

has gone for Senator Goldwater.

REPORTER 2: Senator Goldwater so far is doing respectably in the South,

so we'll just have to wait to judge his basic strategy.

REPORTER 3: The polls are closing right now in New York State.

The New York Herald Tribune put up the headline,

"Johnson Landslide."

INDISTINCT CHATTER

CBS poll profile analysis.

Lyndon Baines Johnson has been elected President of the United States.

CHEERING

How about that? How about that?

- Isn't that something? - Oh, my God!

- Where's Lady Bird? - Right behind you, where I've always been.

Oh. Sixty million votes.

You're no accident, Mr. President.

LAUGHS

Mr. President, you've got a phone call from Senator Russell.

- Well, all right! - LAUGHS

Well, go on, go on, have some fun!

I'll be with you in a second.

- Uncle Dick. - Congratulations, Mr. President.

Well, I'm just trying to do what the old master taught me. CHUCKLES

You know none of this would've happened without you, Uncle Dick, none of it.

Thank you, sir. Thank you.

My apologies about Georgia.

Well, it was disappointing, yeah.

Georgia has never voted Republican before, not once.

Not even during Reconstruction.

Well, they'll be back.

I sure wish you was here.

Listen, Uncle Dick,

you know we got a hell of a lot of work ahead of us.

I'm counting on you, now.

I will give it all that I have, sir.

I know you will.

You enjoy your party, Mr. President.

I'll see you in Washington.

LINE DISCONNECTS

Congratulations, Mr. President.

Yeah.

My apologies.

From our ambassador in Saigon.

A green light for Mr. Johnson, a stop light for Senator Goldwater,

and perhaps for the right wing conservative control of the Republican Party.

These are the numbers.

In electoral votes, it is...

ABERNATHY: 96% of the Negro vote to Johnson.

They owe us big, Martin.

Now they gotta give us that voting rights bill.

Well, LBJ is not gonna give us anything.

We've gotta take it.

And we're gonna start a new campaign right away

in Alabama.

I am so glad that it's finally over, aren't you?

"Over"?

It's just getting started.

- What are you doing out here by yourself? - CHUCKLES

Everybody's waiting for you. Come join the party.

Your party. Mmm.

In a minute.

JOHNSON: You're goddamn right it's my party,

and I had to drag it into the light

kicking and screaming every inch of the way.

'Cause this is how new things are born.

Bird and I lost three babies before we had Lynda,

and I remember the moment when they finally let me into the room

to see my first live child.

And there on the floor

you could still see the doctor's footprints in my wife's blood.

"And I thought," Yeah, this is familiar.

"I know this."

But right now, we're gonna party like there's no tomorrow

'cause there's no feeling in the world half as good as winning.

CHEERING

But the sun will come up,

and the knives will come out,

and all these smiling faces will be watching me,

waiting for that one first moment of weakness.

And then they will gut me like a deer.

You okay, honey?

I'm fine, Bird.

JOHNSON: I'm great.

Hell, I'm president.

CHEERING

MUSIC PLAYING