JFK introduced the bill, but it was stalled in Congress when he was killed. Johnson, a Southerner with a long record of opposing civil rights in his early career, picked up the phone the day after the assassination and started twisting arms. Asked why he was spending all his political capital on it, he said, 'What the hell's the presidency for?' The Senate filibuster lasted 60 working days, the longest in history at that point. When LBJ finally signed it on July 2, 1964, he turned to an aide and said, 'We have lost the South for a generation.' He was right.