For either national party to suggest that it was somehow the driving force behind the Civil Rights Movement's accomplishments would be laughable--primary credit goes to the thousands of "ordinary" citizens, the overwhelming majority of them African-American, who spent more than a decade risking their lives mounting sit-ins, boycotts, marches and voter registration drives to call attention to injustices and galvanize public awareness. Washington had had decades' worth of opportunities, under variously affiliated administrations and Congresses, to act decisively to address de jure racial discrimination in the South and de facto racial discrimination in the North, had that actually been considered a "core principles" priority, which it wasn't.