ABSTRACT
In January, 1955, a new Congress convened, with the Democrats in the majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Eisenhower faced a new challenge in working with a Congress in which the opposition party held a majority. His top priority in domestic affairs continued to be the economy. In 1956, Eisenhower proposed a Civil Rights bill, to establish a commission to monitor progress in civil rights, to create a Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice and to take measures to protect the voting rights of blacks. He had little success in 1956 with his Civil Rights bill, which was not surprising with Southern Democrats so powerful in Congress. In Eisenhower's home state of Kansas, the electorate voted in a Democratic governor in 1956 for the first time in the history of the state. The 1956 election results, however, had been determined not only by issues of domestic affairs but also by developments in foreign affairs.
