It wasn't until the mid 1800s that more and more senators began to talk legislation to death that they opposed. 'Relic of Jim Crow'Southern senators took advantage of the filibuster for years to block civil rights legislation -- including anti-lynching bills. It wasn't until 1964 that senators finally overcame a filibuster to pass the landmark civil rights bill when former Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson was President. It is now so baked in that Senate majority leaders tend to schedule so-called cloture votes to overcome the 60-vote threshold right away. The reason: let's say Republicans are filibustering HR1, the voting rights legislation that passed the House.

Source: CNN March 17, 2021 20:15 UTC