But he is now most known for being an avowed segregationist and a “racist,” as his 76-year-old niece admitted to The Washington Post’s James Hohmann, and Russell’s record on civil rights is shocking today. Hohmann writes:
Russell successfully filibustered anti-lynching bills. He voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which he called “shortsighted and disastrous.” He blocked bills to eliminate poll taxes. He co-authored the “Southern Manifesto” to slow the integration of public schools after the Supreme Court unanimously ordered it in Brown v. Board of Education.
As a Dixiecrat — Southern Democratic politicians opposed to their party’s support for civil rights — Russell openly argued the white race was superior and once vowed that he would oppose “any measure or any movement which would have a tendency to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our states.” He later toned down his rhetoric and pinned the reason for his opposition to civil rights legislation on the less controversial states’ rights.