sentences:  He was part of a series of conservative Democrats and Republicans who held the chairmanship of the U.S. House Committee on Rules from 1935 until 1961, preventing the passage of civil rights legislation during that period.In 1950, Cox made an unsuccessful attempt to forge a coalition of Dixiecrat Democrats and leaders of the House's Republican minority, in support of a bill that would "restore to the House Rules Committee its old power to bury any bill safely in a deep committee pigeonhole.