President Eisenhower's Role as Legislative Leader in the Passage of the Civil Rights Bill of 1957 A Case Study

Author

Calvin Williams, Prairie View A&M College

Date of Award

8-1960

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Degree Discipline

Political Science

Abstract

The relationship between the President and Congress varies with the time, the issue, and the personality of the men concerned. "A President cannot compel Congress to take any specific motion, but he can frequently prevent Congress from acting independently."¹ Thus, he is frequently in a position to guide and lead Congress. We will, in this study, focus on Mr. Eisenhower in the role of legislative leader with reference to the Civil Rights Bill of 1957. To this end, the writer will examine the methods employed by the President, his relationship with Congress and the strategy he used in trying to lead Congress in the passage of the Bill.

More specifically, the writer will try to determine what institutional and personal factors, both within the presidency and within the Congress, tended to modify or motivate the President's behavior toward the Bill as it went through the different phases of the legislative process. The writer will also attempt to determine if the Bill, as passed, reflected Mr. Eisenhower's influences more than that of the Congress. In other words, did the Bill, as finally enacted by Congress, include the main provisions of the original Bill as introduced into Congress by the Eisenhower Administration?

Thus, the central problem in this study involves the question of whether or not President Eisenhower was more influential or less influential than Congress in the passage of the Civil Rights Bill of 1957.

¹Roland Young, The American Congress (New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1958), p. 84.

Publisher

Prairie View A&M College

Rights

Date of Digitization

2-15-2022

Contributing Institution

John B Coleman Library

City of Publication

Prairie View

MIME Type

Application/PDF

Recommended Citation

Williams, C. (1960). President Eisenhower's Role as Legislative Leader in the Passage of the Civil Rights Bill of 1957 A Case Study. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/pvamu-theses/1146