--- title: John Dingell Dies: The Congressman's Most Important Vote description: Rep. John Dingell Jr., American history's longest-serving Congressman, identified a 1964 vote as his most important. canonical: https://time.com/5524222/john-dingell-most-important-vote/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-08T03:01:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T22:43:03.067Z article:section: History og:title: John Dingell Dies: The Congressman's Most Important Vote og:description: It was in 1964 og:url: https://time.com/5524222/john-dingell-most-important-vote/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d8c97e8a56ddca8/698944c2457a52610fd60760/dingell.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: John D. Dingell Jr. Showing Name Plate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Dingell Dies: The Congressman's Most Important Vote twitter:description: It was in 1964 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d8c97e8a56ddca8/698944c2457a52610fd60760/dingell.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Inside the 'Single Most Important Vote' of John Dingell's Record-Breaking Career > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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Its journalism is reported and edited by a professional newsroom led by Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs, with named correspondents on politics, climate, health, technology and culture. It reaches 1 million US print subscribers and 1.15 million globally, plus more than 1.1 million newsletter readers. #### How do I subscribe to TIME magazine? Subscriptions are at time.com/subscribe-agent. Choose digital only at $20 a year, or print and digital from $29 a year or $49 for two years. TIME also publishes seven free email newsletters at time.com/newsletters, which do not require a subscription. #### Can I cancel a TIME subscription? Yes. TIME states that subscriptions can be cancelled at any time. #### Does TIME have free newsletters? Yes. TIME publishes seven free email newsletters reaching more than 1.1 million readers, covering daily news, Washington politics, health, AI, climate and energy, culture, and the newsroom itself. They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Feb 8, 2019 3:01 AM UTC  Rep. John D. Dingell Jr., (D) Michigan, elected to succeed his late father and to become the youngest member of the House of Representatives, is shown as he took over the senior Dingell's quarters in the House Office building, name plate and all, on Jan. 5, 1956. Rep. John D. Dingell Jr., (D) Michigan, elected to succeed his late father and to become the youngest member of the House of Representatives, is shown as he took over the senior Dingell's quarters in the House Office building, name plate and all, on Jan. 5, 1956. Bettmann/Getty Images  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Feb 8, 2019 3:01 AM UTC The career of the longest-serving member of Congress in U.S. history, John David Dingell Jr., who [died Thursday in his home state of Michigan at 92](http://time.com/5524802/michigan-democrat-john-dingell-dies-92/), was one of many votes. But out of all the votes that the Detroit-area Congressman cast during his nearly 60 years in the House of Representatives, one stood out. His [“the single most important vote”](https://history.house.gov/OralHistory/Detail?id=15032404818) of all, he said as part of an oral-history recorded in 2012, was his _yea_ vote for the [Civil Rights Act](http://time.com/2891282/civil-rights-act-1964-50th-anniversary/) in 1964. Dingell had arrived at Congress at the height of segregation, having been elected to replace his Michigan-Congressman father, who had died in 1955, just two weeks after [Rosa Parks](http://time.com/4125377/rosa-parks-60-years-video/) was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus. Nearly a decade into Dingell’s Congressional career, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s [Civil Rights Act](http://time.com/3911037/civil-rights-act-1964/) came before Congress. After Dingell helped get the 1964 bill passed, he faced a difficult primary. Redistricting meant that he was up against another incumbent Congressman, John Lesinski, with whom he had much in common, including a Polish family background and fathers who had also served in Congress. The big difference between them — and likely the topic that would drive voters in one way or the other — was on the issue of race, as TIME [described](http://time.com/vault/issue/1964-09-11/page/45/) it back then: --- > “” --- Dingell’s victory, the magazine surmised, was a solid piece of evidence that the country had come further on civil rights than some had feared. To Dingell, however, the fear of possible backlash was less influential than another motivating factor: doing what he felt was right. “I very nearly lost an election over it. But it was the right thing to do. It was the single vote that did the most to see to it that our country remained one and to finally begin the solution of the problems that triggered the Civil War,” he once [told](https://www.washingtonian.com/2013/06/18/john-dingell-reflects-on-more-than-5-decades-in-congress/) an interviewer, “I was challenged in an election in which the _Wall Street Journal_ gave me a 1 in 15 chance of winning. It was a hard-fought campaign in which I asked people: Why is it that a white man or woman should be able to vote and an African-American should not?” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5524222/john-dingell-most-important-vote/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5524222/john-dingell-most-important-vote/"},"headline":"Inside the 'Single Most Important Vote' of John Dingell's Record-Breaking Career","datePublished":"2019-02-08T03:01:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T22:43:03.067Z","description":"It was in 1964","url":"https://time.com/5524222/john-dingell-most-important-vote/","keywords":["remembrance","politics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d8c97e8a56ddca8/698944c2457a52610fd60760/dingell.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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