“First,” said Johnson, and George held his breath while he waited to hear what the new president would put first.

“No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy’s memory than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill for which he fought so long.”

George leaped to his feet, clapping for joy. He was not the only one: the applause burst out again, and this time went on longer than previously.

Johnson waited for it to die down, then said: “We have talked long enough in this country about civil rights. We have talked for one hundred years or more. It is time, now, to write the next chapter—and to write it in the books of law.”

They applauded again.

Euphoric, George looked at the few black faces in the chamber: five Negro congressmen, including Gus Hawkins of California, who actually looked white; Mr. and Mrs. Wright in the presidential box, clapping; a scatter of dark faces among the spectators in the gallery. Their expressions showed relief, hope, and gladness.

Then his eye fell on the rows of seats behind the cabinet, where the senior senators sat, most of them Southerners, sullen and resentful.

Not a single one was joining in the applause.

• • •

Skip Dickerson laid it out to George six days later in the small study next to the Oval Office. “Our only chance is a discharge petition.”

“What’s that?”

Dickerson pushed his blond forelock out of his eyes. “It’s a resolution passed by Congress discharging the rules committee from control of the bill and forcing it to be sent to the floor for debate.”

George felt frustrated that these arcane procedures had to be gone through so that Maria’s grandfather would not be thrown in jail for registering to vote. “I’ve never heard of that,” he said.

“We need a majority vote. Southern Democrats will be against us, so I calculate we’re fifty-eight votes short.”

“Shit. We need fifty-eight Republicans to support us before we can do the right thing?”

“Yes. And that’s where you come in.”

“Me?”

“A lot of Republicans claim to support civil rights. After all, theirs is the party of Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves. We want Martin Luther King and all the Negro leaders to call their Republican supporters, explain this situation to them, and tell them to vote for the petition. The message is that you can’t be in favor of civil rights unless you’re in favor of the petition.”

George nodded. “That’s good.”

“Some will say they’re in favor of civil rights but they don’t like this procedural hurry-up. They need to understand that Senator Howard Smith is a hard-core segregationist who will make sure his committee debates the rules until it’s too late to pass the bill. What he’s doing is not delay, it’s sabotage.”

“Okay.”

A secretary put her head around the door and said: “He’s ready for you.”

The two young men stood up and walked into the Oval Office.