Johnson Signs First Special Message to Congress

This photograph of President Lyndon B. Johnson meeting in the Cabinet Room was taken by James P. Blair on April 28, 1966. President Johnson met that day with Civil Rights leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and members of Congress and his Cabinet to discuss and sign his Special Message to the Congress Proposing Further Legislation To Strengthen Civil Rights. Johnson's Special Message called for the enactment of federal law prohibiting discrimination based on race, religion, or national origin. Johnson would go on to send a Special Message to Congress every year until the April 11, 1968 signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Seated from left to right are: Andrew J. Biemiller of the AFL-CIO; Attorney General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach; Floyd B. McKissick, national director of the Congress of Racial Equality; Dr. King; Rep. Emanuel Celler of New York; President Johnson; and Roy Wilkins, executive director of the NAACP.