My belief has always been . . . that wherever in this land any individual's constitutional rights are being unjustly denied, it is the obligation of the federal government -- at point of bayonet if necessary -- to restore that individual's constitutional rights.

I would have voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964

We ought to take a serious look and see if we haven't interfered with the democratic rights of the people.

I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at gunpoint if necessary.

The glory of this land has been its capacity for transcending the moral evils of our past. For example, the long struggle of minority citizens for equal rights, once a source of disunity and civil war, is now a point of pride for all Americans. We must never go back. There is no room for racism, anti-Semitism, or other forms of ethnic and racial hatred in this country.

Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.