“Once you had a quorum on the floor, there was no way in which you could make the majority look foolish.”
Frank Valeo describes how vitally important it was that civil rights proponents maintain a quorum at all times during the 1964 civil rights debate.
VALEO: This went on, and Russell saw what was happening. There was irritation now in the committees that couldn't meet—I guess Mansfield made one exception to that, and that was the Appropriations Committee, because the bills would have to be available at the end of this debate in any event. So I think that was the only exception that was made, but all the other committees were stopped from meeting. And they were furious, because this was where you got your publicity and this was where you presumably did your creative work in legislation. But this time the blame was not on the leadership, but it began to fall on those who were holding back the legislation. And the reason that it was possible to do that was because they could not make the majority look foolish. Once you had a quorum on the floor, there was no way in which you could make the majority look foolish. Several times, as the debate wore on, we didn't really have it, but the Southerners began then not to push it to the limit. They didn't want people called back, because there was enough irritation with them already. And we were determined; we had the sergeant at arms ready to pick them up and bring them in as necessary if the quorum was forced to a live quorum. So they avoided doing that. After having tried it several times, and saw that we could produce a quorum within a half hour or there abouts, then they began to drop that as a tactic. They simply droned on in speeches to keep the Senate going.
