We have just lost the South for a generation. or, sometimes quoted as

Very widely quoted as an aside to an aide, upon signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. For example, in a speech by Barack Obama at the LBJ Presidential Library in 2014. However, the The Guardian contacted journalist Bill Moyers, an assistant to Johnson at the time Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964; Moyers reported that Johnson said, offhandedly, "Well, I think we may have lost the south for your lifetime—and mine", but that after Moyers initially reported the quotation, "various versions appeared" slightly altering it, resulting in the "for a generation" phrasing proliferating. See "" 'We May Have Lost the South': What LBJ Really Said About Democrats in 1964", Charles Kaiser, The Guardian, January 23, 2023