Find Five and tell them that it was the Republicans under the leadership of Republican Senate Leader Senator Everett Dirksen R-IL who are responsible for passing the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s.
 

Without the courageous leadership of Everett Dirksen, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would never have been passed.

African-Americans hoped that John F. Kennedy’s election would signal a new era in civil rights legislation, but they were to be sorely disappointed. According to Stan Mendehall, “Kennedy did not view civil rights legislation as a high priority for his administration... Although he was sympathetic to the cause, Kennedy was unwilling to suffer almost certain legislative defeat.” His unfortunate death left the pending legislation to Lyndon Johnson, the former majority leader of the Senate. http://www.lib.niu.edu/1996/iht319648.html

Johnson knew, there would be harsh opposition from the segregationist southern Democrats, and instinctively knew that the success or failure of the Civil Rights Bill lay squarely at the feet of Republican Senate Leader Everett McKinley Dirksen. Johnson knew that his old rival Dirksen could deliver enough Republican votes to invoke cloture, the vote to end unlimited debate (filibuster). If they could get the votes to end cloture, then that would most likely signal that the votes for passage would be forthcoming.

“Minutes before the cloture vote was to be taken, Senator Dirksen delivered a floor speech calling for cloture that is regarded by some scholars as one of the great Republican orations in history. . .
Victor Hugo wrote in his diary substantially this sentiment, ‘Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come.’ The time has come for equality of opportunity in sharing of government, in education, and in employment. It must not be stayed or denied.”

After successfully defeating the eighty-three-day filibuster, Dirksen, when asked how he had become a crusader in this cause, replied, "I am involved in mankind, and whatever the skin, we are all included in mankind.” (Wynton. C. Hall, The Right Words: Great Republican Speeches That Shaped History, Wiley: 2007)

“The Civil Rights legislation of the 1960’s was, in fact, supported by most Republicans in Congress. Democrats had it completely within their power to pass those bills but did not. Republicans overwhelmingly came to the aid… 83 percent of Republicans voted for those bills, a percentage of support almost twenty points higher than that of the Democrats. If had not been for the strong support of Republicans, the Civil rights Act of 1964 and the voting rights Act of 1965 would never have become law… .” (Barton, David, American History in black and White, Wallbuilder Press: 2004. P.130)