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I want to talk about one of our nation’s great civil rights leaders, but it may surprise you to find out who he was.

Today was the 50th anniversary of the breaking of the 54 day Senate filibuster led by southern Democrats opposed to what eventually became a historic Civil Rights law.

It had been 37 years since a filibuster had been broken. Leading the fight to bring the filibuster to a end was Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota.

Thank God for Hubert Humphrey.

From all accounts he was apparently the one person at the time with the sharpness of mind and kindness of heart that could and did bring together people not used to voting alike. It was a historic day when the bill passed both houses of Congress and was signed by President Lyndon Johnson.

Civil Rights was a moral issue for Senator Humphrey. He believed our nation could not continue to tolerate treating people of color as second class Americans by denying them the full rights of their citizenship.

Back then his attitude was bi-partisan. Many Republicans joined Democrats to make our nation’s laws racially neutral. Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois joined Humphrey in the fight and as the Minority Leader and brought along other Republicans who voted to end the filibuster.

In a matter of days the Senate and House sent the bill to President Johnson to sign, a historic achievement with powerful consequences.

We are a much better nation because of the Civil Rights bill that was passed. Segregation and discrimination were a blight on our national character. And while racism is still with us in numerous forms and ways, civil rights laws now shine the light of justice on any expressions of it.

At the same time, it amazes me as I look back on 1964 and 1965 how blind so many people were to the rightness of the legislation.

Senator Humphrey received hate mail and phone calls that make you shudder to read them. One person wrote that he hoped there was another Lee Harvey Oswald waiting around the corner for him. Someone else wrote that they hoped he got cancer.

Not all, but many of these words of hatred came from my native south. I have never been ashamed of being a southerner, but I have often been disappointed and embarrassed by the words and behavior of many of my former neighbors.

Even more stunning were the number of Christians who attended church every Sunday, but who were as morally blind as others. I will never forget being cursed for preaching about the rightness of the civil rights movement by one of my own church members.

But there were also many Christians, and many other southerners who knew that the new law was the right thing for our nation and openly supported enforcement of its various parts.

I am proud of those southerners who stood up against great odds, even against family and close friends, for the civil rights bill. And I am proud of the Democratic Party that spearheaded the effort to get it passed, and especially the great Hubert Humphrey.

His name is hallowed in this part of the country, as you might expect, but not because he was a MN native son, but because he was the man he was.

May his tribe increase across this great land. We could use more leaders like him.