TRENTON — Influential black leaders in the state said today they were stunned by comments made by Gov. Chris Christie that civil rights pioneers of the 1950s and '60s would have gladly put the rights they were fighting for to a vote, and suggested he needed a history lesson.

On Tuesday, Christie proposed putting the question of same-sex marriage on the November ballot rather than seeking its legalization through legislation.

"The fact of the matter is," he said, "I think people would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South."

But sponsors of the bill, including Senate President Sweeney (D-Gloucester), noted that civil rights have historically been gained through legislation.

Today, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) had sharp words for the governor and said he needed a "history lesson."

"Governor — people were fighting and dying in the streets of the South for a reason," she said. "They were fighting and dying in the streets of the South because the majority refused to grant minorities equal rights by any method. It took legislative action to bring justice to all Americans, just as legislative action is the right way to bring marriage equality to all New Jerseyans."

Newark Mayor Cory Booker had much the same criticism: "I shudder to think what would have happened if the civil rights gains, heroically established by courageous lawmakers in the 1960s, were instead conveniently left up to popular votes in our 50 states.

One of the leading injustices civil rights activists protested against a half-century ago was discrimination at the polls, which after years of bloodshed resulted in passage of the Civil Rights Acts and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Jerome Harris, chairman of the New Jersey Black Issues Convention, said: "The 1965 Voting Rights act was enacted to overcome the systemic, intentional racial suppression of the black vote. It’s certainly a lack of historical understanding about how the expanding definition of who ‘We the People’ are has happened. Sometimes it takes bold acts of defiance by the minority."

At a news conference today, Christie defended his statement, insisting that civil rights activists would have been able to pursue justice through the courts if a referendum had failed.

"My point is, they’re trying to say the only way to deal with a civil rights issue is through legislation, and my point is that in a state like this, the fact of the matter is their own polling belies that position." A recent Quinnipiac University poll found that 52 percent of registered voters in New Jersey supported same-sex marriage.

Oliver was not the only lawmaker to take umbrage at Christie’s remark.

Assemblyman John Wisniewksi (D-Middlesex), chairman of the state Democratic Party, said, "Rosa Parks didn’t get to the front of the bus through a ballot question and Jim Crow laws weren’t repealed by public referendum."

As Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Mercer), put it, "It’s difficult to understand what the governor was thinking."

Related coverage:

• Editorial: On gay marriage in N.J., Gov. Chris Christie tries a political dodge

• Gov. Christie calls for referendum on issue of legalizing gay marriage

• N.J. gay marriage supporters pack Senate committee hearing on a bill that would allow gay couples to wed

• N.J. gay marriage advocates rally at Statehouse