Did any civil-rights organizations or lawmakers respond formally to Charlie Kirk’s quote about the Civil Rights Act?
This fact-check may be outdated. Consider refreshing it to get the most current information.
Executive summary
Multiple news outlets and fact-checkers confirm Charlie Kirk publicly said the Civil Rights Act was “a huge mistake,” and several lawmakers and legacy civil‑rights organizations issued formal responses condemning his record and criticizing efforts to celebrate him after his September 2025 death [1] [2] [3] [4]. The Congressional Black Caucus and individual members including Rep. Terri Sewell and Rep. Troy Carter released formal statements opposing a House resolution that honored Kirk’s ideology and specifically cited his remark about the Civil Rights Act [5] [6] [7] [4].
1. How we know Kirk said it — the public record
Audio and reporting establish that Kirk told audiences in December 2023 that “we made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s,” a quotation verified by outlets including Snopes, FactCheck.org and Wired, and widely reported after his killing in September 2025 [2] [1] [8]. Reuters and other outlets summarized the remark as Kirk calling the 1964 Act “a huge mistake,” placing the quote in the context of his broader critiques of affirmative action and diversity programs [3].
2. Immediate formal responses from lawmakers — roll call and statements
Several members of Congress reacted formally when House Republicans moved a resolution that critics said glorified Kirk after his death. Rep. Terri Sewell publicly opposed the resolution, explicitly citing Kirk’s line that the Civil Rights Act was a mistake and condemning his repeated disparagement of Black Americans [6]. Rep. Troy Carter issued a statement calling Kirk’s words “not harmless,” reproducing the quote and cataloguing what he described as a pattern of demeaning rhetoric [7]. The Congressional Black Caucus—represented in official materials connected to the resolution—also engaged formally on the issue [5].
3. Legacy civil‑rights groups organized a formal rebuke
A coalition of leading civil‑rights organizations issued a coordinated formal statement condemning the House motion to celebrate Kirk and arguing his record “promoted ideas that were exclusionary, harmful, and fundamentally at odds with the values of equality and justice,” explicitly framing his rhetoric — including opposition to the Civil Rights Act — as the basis for their rebuke [4]. That statement directly links organizational condemnation to the congressional action and to Kirk’s public comments about civil rights law [4].
4. Media framing and corroboration — how outlets connected the quote to reactions
Major news organizations and longform reporting framed Kirk’s Civil Rights Act comment as emblematic of a wider project to discredit MLK and civil‑rights law; Wired reported the December 2023 remarks as part of an organized campaign and Reuters summarized how his rhetoric “inspired supporters, enraged foes,” noting the specific line about the Act [8] [3]. FactCheck.org and Snopes also verified the remark and contextualized it amid Kirk’s criticisms of DEI and affirmative‑action policies [1] [2].
5. Competing perspectives and the political stakes
Sources show two competing frames: critics and civil‑rights organizations treat the remark as an attack on foundational civil‑rights progress and as justification to oppose honoring Kirk in Congress [4] [7]. Supporters and some GOP backers who backed the resolution framed opposition as politicizing a violent death or as an overreach against free speech; available sources do not detail a formal, unified defense of the specific Civil Rights Act quote by a named civil‑rights organization, though Republicans moved to pass a celebratory resolution cited in responses [5] [6] [4].
6. What the record does not say — limits of available reporting
Available sources document the quote and formal condemnations tied to the House resolution and civil‑rights groups’ statement, but they do not provide a comprehensive list of every civil‑rights group’s individual press release beyond the coalition statement, nor do they show a full inventory of all lawmakers’ comments; for some members, “available sources do not mention” whether they issued separate formal statements beyond those cited [4] [5].
7. Bottom line for readers
The factual record in the provided reporting is clear: Charlie Kirk publicly said the Civil Rights Act was a “huge mistake,” and that statement became a central citation in formal condemnations by lawmakers such as Reps. Sewell and Carter and by a coalition of legacy civil‑rights organizations that objected to Congressional efforts to honor his record [2] [6] [7] [4]. Sources offer competing political interpretations of the fallout—critics call the remark evidence of harmful, exclusionary rhetoric, while some congressional proponents framed votes differently—but the linkage between the quote and the formal responses is well documented in the available reporting [3] [4].