BIOGRAPHY
Lyndon Baines Johnson, also known as LBJ was the 36th
president of the United States of America serving from the years1963
-1969. After serving a long term in both houses of the Congress, he was selected
by the presidential candidate of the 1960 elections, John F. Kennedy as his
running mate. When Kennedy won the elections, he became the 37th Vice-president
of the state and succeeded to the presidential throne. His presidential
accession was sudden as he came in to replace the assassinated popular president
Kennedy, a task not easy at all to perform.
With a landslide victory in place in the 1964 elections, all in his favor,
Lyndon Baines Johnson used his administrative powers to aid social issues that
came to be known as the constituents of the “Great Society”. His
role in escalating American military participation in the Vietnam War was also a
decision that made an impact on the country as well as the on United States
itself.
Lyndon Baines Johnson was born near Stonewall, Texas on August 27, 1908
to Samuel Ealy Johnson, Jr. and Rebekah Baines. His birthplace was a little
farmhouse in the impoverished area on the River Pedernales. He had one brother
and three sisters. He showed leading qualities in school too as his awkward,
talkative and intriguing nature helped him get elected as president of his
eleventh-grade class. He graduated from Johnson City High School in 1924 and
worked through his college graduation from Southwest Texas State Teachers’
College in 1931. Afterwards he took up teaching in Mexican populated areas of
Texas and San Antonio. This is where he realized the interest and initiative to
make knowledge available to every living American and eradicate poverty.
His early political career was as interesting as his childhood. With his
father’s influence, he campaigned for state Senator Welly Hopkins. Due to
his strong personality, he was recommended to Congressman Richard M. Kleberg. He
was appointed speaker of the “little congress” where he cultivated
budding Congressmen, lobbyists as well as newspapermen. He became a surrogate
son to Sam Rayburn and thereafter married Claudia Alta Taylor (known as ‘Lady
Bird’). They had two daughters. As the head of the Texas National Youth
Administration in 1935, he helped create job and education opportunity doors to
poorer sections of the society. He had also served as a naval officer in the
Naval Reserves.
After President Kennedy’s assassination, he was sworn in as the
president of the state on Air Force One at Love Field Airport in Dallas in 1963.
The immense grief and sympathy that Kennedy’s assassination had created
gave Lyndon Baines Johnson impromptu thrust to carry out Kennedy’s plans
and initiatives regarding social issues like poverty, education to all and free
Medicare. This was evident as most of John F. Kennedy’s appointees were
retained in office, including the late president’s brother, Attorney
General Robert F. Kennedy before he left office in 1964.
In accordance with the civil rights movement, Johnson passed the Civil Rights
Act of 1964. This was inspite of the Southern resistance to the passing of the
Bill. He also passed the Voting Rights Act that disallowed voting discrimination
against blacks and other impoverished sections of the society. He also escalated
the troops in Vietnam from 16,000 in 1963 to almost 550,000 in 1968. This move
was met with mixed reactions from the populace in the state.
Lyndon Baines Johnson died on January 22, 1973 from a heart attack, his
third, at the age of 64. He was given a state funeral where several dignitaries
from the administration and his party, including the Secretary of the State,
eulogized him.
Renowned for his “Johnson treatment”, or the arm-twisting of
important political engineers, Johnson had a domineering yet powerful
personality that made him popular and respected across all ages and party lines.
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