# Think Tank > History >  Ronald Reagan Opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act

## FrankRep

*Wikipedia: Ronald Reagan > Early political career*


In the early 1960s Reagan opposed certain civil rights legislation, saying that "if an individual wants to discriminate against Negroes or others in selling or renting his house, it is his right to do so."[69] In his rationale, he cited his opposition to government intrusion into personal freedoms, as opposed to racism; he strongly denied having racist motives and later reversed his opposition to voting rights and fair housing laws.[70] When legislation that would become Medicare was introduced in 1961, Reagan created a recording for the American Medical Association warning that such legislation would mean the end of freedom in America. Reagan said that if his listeners did not write letters to prevent it, "we will awake to find that we have socialism. And if you don't do this, and if I don't do it, one of these days, you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it once was like in America when men were free."[71][72][73]


*Wikipedia: Political positions of Ronald Reagan*

Reagan did not support federal initiatives to provide blacks with civil rights.[34] He opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964[35] and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.[34] His opposition was based on his view that certain provisions of both Acts violated the US Constitution and in the case of the 1964 Act, intruded upon the civil rights of business and property owners.[34]

Reagan did not consider himself a racist, and dismissed any attacks aimed at him relating to racism as attacks on his personal character and integrity.[34] He claimed his opposition to certain federal government civil rights acts were not because he was racist, but because he believed in states rights.

Although critics claim that Reagan gave a States' Rights speech, also known as Reagan's Neshoba County Fair "states' rights" speech, [36] in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the town where three civil rights workers were murdered in 1964,[37] when running for president in 1980, he actually gave it at the Neshoba County Fair, seven miles away. It was a popular campaigning spot, as presidential candidates John Glenn and Michael Dukakis both campaigned there as well.[38][39]

He also said (while campaigning in Georgia) that Confederate President Jefferson Davis was "a hero of mine."[40] However, Reagan was offended that some accused him of racism.[40] In 1980 Reagan said the Voting Rights Act was "humiliating to the South,"[41] although he later supported extending the Act.[42] He opposed Fair Housing legislation in California (the Rumford Fair Housing Act),[43] but in 1988 signed a law expanding the Fair Housing Act of 1968.[44] Reagan was unsuccessful in trying to veto another civil rights bill in March of the same year.[45] Reagan supported South Africa in spite of apartheid, but yielded to pressure from Congress and his own party.[46] At first Reagan opposed the Martin Luther King holiday, and signed it only after an overwhelming veto-proof majority (338 to 90 in the House of Representatives and 78 to 22 in the Senate) voted in favor of it.[47] Congress overrode Reagan's veto of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988.[45][48] Reagan said the Restoration Act would impose too many regulations on churches, the private sector and state and local governments.[49]



Side Note: Ronald Reagan also endorsed Barry Goldwater who was against the CRA.


I bet you didn't know that!

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## BuddyRey

Very interesting!

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## Smart3

I don't like people who don't like black people.

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## heavenlyboy34

> I don't like people who don't like black people.


So you discriminate against people who discriminate.  Bigot. :P

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## AlexAmore

Anybody who assume it's only whites with property to allow or disallow blacks on are racist.

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## angelatc

> I don't like people who don't like black people.


Nobody cares about you though - that's the difference.

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## Origanalist

> I don't like people who don't like black people.


Who doesn't like black people?

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## anaconda

I am afraid A President Rand Paul might be routinely overruled on vetoes.

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## RonPaulMall

> I bet you didn't know that!


I knew that.  Reagan was much more of a pro-freedom Constitutionalist back then.  It wasn't until when he got elected Governor that he moved sharply to the left and became the Big Government buffoon that most people remember as.

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## phill4paul

He didn't oppose the civil rights act. Neither did Ron Paul. Nor I. *He opposed the death of personal property rights.*  Or at least I would suppose that was the reason.

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## Humanae Libertas

Obviously Raygun since he did sign gun control bills, specifically aimed at the black panthers to stop open carrying in CA.

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## WhistlinDave

I can't wait to shove this in the face of each of my Neocon Repub friends next time they rag on Ron Paul claiming he was racist.  Thank you.  Was getting tired of giving them links of video of Ron Paul talking about the war on drugs being based in racism, which they rationalize away with mental gymnastics.  Can't wait to break some hearts with this.

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## FrankRep

In his rationale, he cited his opposition to government intrusion into personal freedoms, as opposed to racism; he strongly denied having racist motives and later reversed his opposition to voting rights and fair housing laws.



> I don't like people who don't like black people.


Ronald Reagan was defending "Property Rights" and "Personal Freedoms." 

That's not racist.

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## robert68

> I knew that.  Reagan was much more of a pro-freedom Constitutionalist back then.  It wasn't until when he got elected Governor that he moved sharply to the left and became the Big Government buffoon that most people remember as.


In his own words, he had been a "New Deal Democrat" earlier in his life.

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## abacabb

It's a reasonable position. People don't hire people and fire them for idiotic reasons all the time. These laws just open up a bureaucratic can of worms.

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## compromise

> For the time, Reagan was unusual in his opposition to racial discrimination, and recalled a time in Dixon when the local inn would not allow black people to stay there. Reagan brought them back to his house, where his mother invited them to stay the night and have breakfast the next morning.





> During the Great Depression, dad played football for Coach Mac McKinzie at Eureka College in Illinois. During a game trip to a nearby Illinois college, the team was scheduled to stay in a hotel—but the hotel manager refused to give a room to Dad's two black teammates, William Franklin "Burgie" Burghardt and Jim Rattan.
> Coach McKinzie angrily replied that the entire team would sleep on the bus that night. Dad spoke up and offered an alternative: Why not send Burgie and Jim to the Reagan home in Dixon, just 15 miles away? Dad's parents, Jack and Nelle Reagan, would welcome his teammates—and the whole team would get a good night's rest.
> In his autobiography, "An American Life," dad recalled, "We went to my house and I rang the bell and Nelle came to the door. . . . 'Well, come on in,' she said. . . . She was absolutely color-blind when it came to racial matters; these fellows were just two of my friends. That was the way she and Jack had always raised my brother and me."
> Burgie was dad's best friend on the team—he played center and dad played guard—and he recalled the incident as well. Shortly after Dad's inauguration in 1981, liberal columnist Mark Shields interviewed Burgie, who was then a retired college professor. Burgie recounted the story exactly as Dad would later tell it in his book, including the warm welcome from Jack and Nelle Reagan.





> "The time has come for Republicans to say to black voters: 'We offer principles that black Americans can and do support. We believe in jobs, real jobs; we believe in education that is really education; we believe in treating all Americans as individuals and not as stereotypes or voting blocs."


Reagan was not a racist.

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