>>You are absolutely right on this.
LBJ gets the credit (or blame) for its passage, but his real contribution was his strong-arming of his southern democrat allies into supporting the bill that came primarily from Repubs acting in the tradition of Republican abolitionism dating back to the early 1800's.
He didn't do so well in Southern states in that case! Actually, geography has a closer correlation with voting than party affiliation. The Northern States were for the bill; the Southern states (or at least their senators and congressmen) were agin. The Republicans even had a "Southern Strategy" that exploited racial polarization to attract white voters to win elections. Small wonder the blacks supported the Democrats and still do.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
