Senate in after winning a Democratic primary by only 87 votes. Allegations of voter fraud are debated to this day. In , he was named Senate minority leader after opposing Republicans gained control of the Senate. Two years later, Johnson became Majority Leader when Democrats regained power. The energetic Johnson reshaped the role of Senate Majority leader.
Despite having a heart attack in , Johnson worked tirelessly to promote himself and his agendas, including civil rights legislation and the American space program.
His ability to persuade politicians of both parties was legendary. Why did Johnson decide to become Vice President? One theory is that Johnson saw the position of Vice President as expanding his power base in the Senate. But after the election, Johnson was rebuffed when he tried to chair the Democratic conference in the Senate; his fellow Democrats saw the move as a violation of the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches. Millions of Americans raised themselves above the "poverty line," and the percentage under it declined from 20 to 12 percent between and Nevertheless, the controversy surrounding the War on Poverty hurt the Democrats, contributing to their defeat in and engendering deep antagonism from racial, fiscal, and cultural conservatives.
Johnson was from the South and had grown up under the system of "Jim Crow" in which whites and blacks were segregated in all public facilities: schools, hotels and restaurants, parks and swimming pools, hospitals, and so on.
Yet even as a senator, he had become a moderate on race issues and was part of efforts to guarantee civil rights to African Americans. When Johnson assumed the presidency, he was heir to the commitment of the Kennedy administration to pass the Civil Rights Act of ending segregation in public facilities.
As a result of his personal leadership and lobbying with key senators, he forged a bipartisan coalition of northern and border-state Democrats and moderate Republicans. These senators offset a coalition of southern Democrats and right-wing Republicans, and a bill was passed. It made segregation by race illegal in public accommodations involved in interstate commerce—in practice this would cover all but the most local neighborhood establishments. The following year, civil rights activists turned to another issue: the denial of voting rights in the South.
Since the s, blacks had been denied access to voting booths by state laws that were administered in a racially discriminatory manner by local voting registrars. These included 1 literacy tests which could be manipulated so that literate blacks would fail; 2 "good character" tests which required existing voters to vouch for new registrants and which meant, in practice, that no white would ever vouch for a black applicant; and 3 the "poll tax" which discriminated against poor people of any race.
The poll tax was eliminated by constitutional amendment, which left the literacy test as the major barrier. In , black demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, marching for voting rights were attacked by police dogs and beaten bloody in scenes that appeared on national television. In response to public revulsion, Johnson seized the opportunity to propose the Voting Rights Act of This piece of legislation provided for a suspension of literacy tests in counties where voting rates were below a certain threshold, which in practice covered most of the South.
It also provided for federal registrars and marshals to enroll African American voters. The law was passed by Congress, and the results were immediate and significant. Black voter turnout tripled within four years, coming very close to white turnouts throughout the South.
Blacks entered the previously "lily white" Democratic Party, forging a biracial coalition with white moderates. Meanwhile, white conservatives tended to leave the Democratic Party, due to their opposition to Johnson's civil rights legislation and liberal programs. Many of these former Democrats joined the Republican Party that had been revitalized by Goldwater's campaign of The result was the development of a vibrant two-party system in southern states—something that had not existed since the s.
Even with these measures, racial tensions increased. In addition, the civil rights measures championed by the President were seen as insufficient to minority Americans; to the majority, meanwhile, they posed a threat.
Between and , race riots shattered many American cities, with federal troops deployed in the Watts Riots in Los Angeles as well as in the Detroit and Washington, D. There were new civil disturbances in many cities, but some immediate good came from this tragedy: A bill outlawing racial discrimination in housing had been languishing in Congress, and King's murder renewed momentum for the measure.
With Johnson determined to see it pass, Congress bowed to his will. The resulting law began to open up the suburbs to minority residents, though it would be several decades before segregated housing patterns would be noticeably dented. Although the Great Society, the War on Poverty, and civil rights legislation all would have a measurable and appreciable benefit for the poor and for minorities, it is ironic that during the Johnson years civil disturbances seemed to be the main legacy of domestic affairs.
Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission to inquire into the causes of this unrest, and the commission reported back that America had rapidly divided into two societies, "separate and unequal.
Johnson rejected the findings of the commission and thought that they were too radical. By , with his attention focused on foreign affairs, the President's efforts to fashion a Great Society had come to an end. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James A. Garfield Chester A. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. He also pushed for America's entry into what would become known as the Space Race. By —after two failed attempts at the vice presidential nomination—he set his sights on the White House.
That year, however, belonged to John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Young, handsome, rich, and witty, the Senator from Massachusetts piled up one primary win after another. Despite Johnson's announcement of his own candidacy, Kennedy was nominated on the first ballot at the Democratic convention in Los Angeles. Facing a seasoned Republican contender in Vice President Richard Nixon, Kennedy turned to Johnson to bring political and geographical balance to the ticket.
Johnson delivered the South—including several states that had voted Republican during the Eisenhower years—and the team of JFK and LBJ won the election by the smallest popular margin of the century. Although Johnson never seemed comfortable in the vice presidency, he headed the space program, oversaw a nuclear test ban treaty, and worked toward equal opportunity for members of racial minorities. He also publicly supported the young President's decision to send American military advisers to the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam, whose corrupt but friendly government was threatened by a Communist insurgency.
Johnson was not, however, in Kennedy's inner circle and seemed frustrated by his lack of influence, particularly on legislative matters. Johnson was only two cars behind Kennedy on the day the President was shot to death in Dallas. He was sworn in as President aboard Air Force One later that afternoon. A few days later, he spoke to a joint session of Congress.
Seizing on Kennedy's inaugural plea to "let us begin anew," he asked Congress to "let us continue. He pushed for passage of Kennedy's tax cut and civil rights bill and declared a "War on Poverty.
During his presidency, Johnson engineered the passage of the Medicare program, poured money into education and reconstruction of the cities, and pushed through three civil rights bills that outlawed discrimination against minorities in the areas of accommodations in interstate commerce, voting, and housing.
But in the meantime, the conflict in Vietnam was intensifying. By , the American "advisers" were a thing of the past as Johnson began an escalation of American commitment to more than , combat troops. Within three years, the number would swell to more than , As American casualties increased, an antiwar movement gathered momentum.
The North Vietnamese and the National Liberation Front kept winning, even as Johnson poured more money, firepower, and men into the war effort. Ultimately, the President came to be identified personally with a war that seemed unwinnable. As a result, his popularity sagged drastically, dipping below 30 percent in approval ratings.
Senator Eugene McCarthy, a Minnesota Democrat, announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination and did surprisingly well in the New Hampshire primary. President Kennedy's younger brother Robert also joined the race. On March 31, , Johnson announced that he would neither seek nor accept the nomination.
After a relatively short period in restless retirement, Lyndon Johnson died on January 22, Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James A. Garfield Chester A. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Bush Bill Clinton George W.
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