Everett McKinley Dirksen Congressional Leadership Research Center

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Everett McKinley Dirksen Congressional Leadership Research Center

Description

The Dirksen Congressional Center is a non-partisan, not-for-profit, private foundation located in Pekin, Illinois, the home of the late Everett McKinley Dirksen (1896-1969). Dirksen served on the Pekin City Council (1927-1931), in the U.S. House of Representatives (1933-1949), and in the U.S. Senate (1951-1969). His Republican colleagues elected Dirksen as Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate in 1959, a post he held until his death. In that role, he placed a highly visible and key role in politics of the 1960s, helping to write and pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Open Housing Act of 1968, all landmarks of the Great Society. Dirksen was also one of the Senate’s strongest supporters of President Lyndon Johnson’s conduct of the war in Vietnam. The Center promotes a greater public understanding of the U.S. Congress through archival, research, and educational programs.

Collection Items

Comments by Senator Everett Dirksen on the State of the Union
Comments by Senator Everett Dirksen (R-IL) on the State of the Union

Photograph of Senator Everett Dirksen and President Lyndon Baines Johnson
Photograph of Senator Everett Dirksen and President Lyndon Baines Johnson

Photograph of Senators Mike Mansfield and Everett Dirksen
Photograph of Senators Mike Mansfield (D-MT) and Everett Dirksen (R-IL)

Photograph of senators when Senate invoked cloture on the Voting Rights Act
Left to right: Senators Thomas Kuchel (R-CA), Philip Hart (D-MI), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Mike Mansfield (D-MT), Everett Dirksen (R-IL), and Jacob Javits (R-NY)

Photograph of the Joint Senate-House Republican Leadership press conference
Featuring the question of the week, “What Can We Believe?” House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford (R-MI) pictured with Senator Everett Dirksen (R-IL)

Press release from Joint Senate-House Republican leadership press conference
Press release from Joint Senate-House Republican leadership press conference

Photograph of the Joint Senate-House Republican Leadership press conference
Featuring the question of the week, “What Can We Believe?”

Photograph of the Joint Senate-House Republican Leadership press conference
Featuring the question of the week, “What Can We Believe?”
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