President Lyndon B. Johnson

President Lyndon B. Johnson

By Tom Kirvan

He has been labeled as colorful, complex, and controversial, three words that perhaps best describe the many dimensions of Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, born on August 27, 1908, in Stonewall, Texas.

In line with the size of his native state, LBJ was a larger-than-life figure in Washington, D.C., first serving as a congressional aide before winning a special election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1937. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1948, eventually becoming Majority Leader when the Democrats regained power of the chamber in 1956.

After losing a bitter campaign against John F. Kennedy for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination, Johnson was the surprise choice to be JFK’s running mate, serving as Vice President for less than three years before President Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963.

President Lyndon B. Johnson

Upon becoming President, Johnson worked tirelessly to promote the Civil Rights Act of 1964, signing into law the most comprehensive civil rights legislation since the Reconstruction Era. His “Great Society” program was aimed at improving access to health care through the Medicare program, while increasing aid to education and the arts, in addition to spearheading the war on poverty.

Despite the changes he brought about, the war in Vietnam proved to be his political undoing, as the vast expansion of American involvement during his time in office prompted widespread protests that ultimately hastened his exit from the presidency in 1968.

Among his most notable quotes:

• “A President’s hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right.”

• “Victory is no longer a truth. It is only a word to describe who is left alive in the ruins.”

• “We can achieve nothing by lawlessness and divisiveness among the American people. It is only by joining together and only by working together that we can continue to move toward equality and fulfillment for all of our people.”

• “Let us close the springs of racial poison. Let us pray for wise and understanding hearts. Let us lay aside irrelevant differences and make our nation whole. Let us hasten that day when our unmeasured strength and our unbounded spirit will be free to do the great works ordained for this nation by the just and wise God who is the Father of us all.”