Lyndon B. Johnson
Civil Rights Issues
Johnson’s goal for the government and our nation:
“To shatter forever not only the barriers of law and public practice, but the walls which bound the condition of many by the color of his skin. To dissolve, as best we can, the antique enmities of the heart which diminish the holder, divide the great democracy, and do wrong — great wrong — to the children of God.”
-Lyndon B. Johnson, Howard University commencement, June 4, 1965.
Lyndon B. Johnson has been credited with being one of the most important figures in the civil rights movement. But, some politicians believe that Johnson used civil rights issues to gain African American votes. However, Johnson claimed to be an “idealist” who dreamed of making the United States a “Great Society.”
In 1964, Johnson overcame southern resistance and passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This act outlawed most forms of racial segregation. John F. Kennedy originally proposed the bill. After Kennedy’s death, Johnson planned to finish what Kennedy started.
In 1965, he was able to pass a second civil rights bill, the Voting Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination on voting. This allowed millions of southern blacks to vote for the very first time. Not until 1965 did the goal of the civil rights movement shift from an end to segregation to the beginning of social and economic equality.
Johnson did many things for education. He hoped that his elementary and secondary education act in 1965 would help children get our of the ghettos. Poor states benefited greatly from the federal funding. In the late 60s the percentage of African Americans obtaining a high school diploma rose to 60% (up from 40%). Johnson passed the Higher Education act in 1965 to give aid to poor black colleges. It led to the number of African American college students to quadruple within a decade.. Another first also happened for the Supreme Court. In, 1967, Johnson nominated civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall to be the first African American Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
Johnson was also very much against the KKK. He denounced them as a “hooded society of bigots.” After the murder of civil rights worker, Viola Liuzzo, he went on television to announce the arrest or four KKK members. He was the first President to arrest and prosecute members of the KKK since Ulysses S. Grant 93 years earlier.
Lyndon Johnson was very committed to changing the political and social structure. He was an advocate for the poor, African Americans, and people who were denied an education. I think that he did great things for black people in the United Stated based on what I read. I hope he did all of these things for the right reasons.
Another famous quote (commencement address, Howard University):
"It is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates. This is the next and the more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result. To this end equal opportunity is essential, but not enough."
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Comments
Excellent job Hannah!!