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Our topic Lyndon Johnson and the "great society" has some similarities  to . Lyndon Johnson and Willie bodega they both have a dream to build a "great society" for their own race. By, pursing  these dreams by choosing poor strategy or successful strategy. For example, Willie bodega chose poor strategy to help his race to achieve his dream of the great society. But Lyndon Johnson chose very successful strategy to help his race achieve his dream of great society.

Sarah Jaeallah/Gisselle Bahena

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President Lyndon B. Johnson's "Great Society" Speech

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50 years ago today, President Lyndon B. Johnson unveiled his vision for the Great Society.

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how did Lyndon Johnson purse his dreams

Lyndon Johnson pursed the great society by putting presidential signature to the 1964 civil rights and the 1965 voting rights act.

Sara Jaeallah

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Citation: C N Trueman "Lyndon Johnson"
historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 27 Mar 2015. 15 May 2018.

Lydon Baines Johnson with John F Kennedy

Lyndon Johnson's work for minorities began in 1928 when he obtained his first job as an elementary school teacher; it was, of course, at this time a segregated school attended by only Mexican Americans. Johnson had 28 pupils who he recalled were "mired in the slums", "lashed by prejudice" and "buried half- alive in illiteracy". Johnson believed that their only way out was by education and he bribed, bullied, cajoled and encouraged his pupils, and they adored him.

During the Great Depression, Johnson worked for one of Roosevelt's New Deal Agencies, the National Youth Administration. Johnson was ordered by Washington to have a black leader as a close advisor, Johnson feared he would be "run out of Texas", feeling implementation had to be slow as so to not upset deep- rooted customs. Despite this Johnson made great efforts to alleviate black unemployment; 50% by 1932. Despite privately referring to African Americans as "niggers", he sometimes stayed at black colleges and the African American community found him unusually helpful. Johnson however did little to help other minorities such as Hispanics because, there was little political pressure from Washington and Johnson stood to politically gain little from helping them.

When Johnson became a Congressman, he wanted to gain the minority vote and so he considered employing a Mexican or Spanish-American to show his "appreciation" of his Mexican supporters; cynical Texans called his behaviour a publicity stunt. Many felt that any Texan who wanted to represent the segregated state had to appear to be a segregationist and his gesture didn't. It was however beneficial to Johnson as it won him the minority vote and made him, a politician with national ambitions, look free from sectional prejudices.

Johnson, like Eisenhower, thought civil rights legislation would try to force people to change and lead to violence. Despite this politically correct (in Southern eyes) action, Johnson was behind the scenes working to get black farmers and schoolchildren equal treatment in his congressional district, believing small, but real developments would be better than ground- breaking legislation. In 1938 Johnson secured federal funding for housing in Austin, Texas to benefit Mexican, African American and White slum dwellers. Johnson softened this for racist southerners by stating "This country won't have to worry about isms [communism and fascism] when it gives its people a decent, clean place to live and a job. They'll believe in the government." This behaviour may make Lyndon Johnson seem a Jekyll and Hyde character on race relations, his African American servants were treated well by Johnson in private until other racists visited Johnson and he put on a show for them to gain their support for his political ambitions.

By the mid-1950's, Senator Johnson was clearly altering his stance on civil rights issues, being one of few Southern politicians who supported the 1954 BROWN decision by the Supreme Court. He did so because he felt it important to uphold the American Constitution and the Supreme Court's place in that. Johnson felt that the debate of BROWN was merely weakening the Democrats and the whole country. Johnson wanted the South to accept it in order for the South to make economic advances, knowing racial tensions made the area unattractive to investors. By this time Johnson's presidential aspirations meant he couldn't appear too narrowly Southern and he was one of only three Southern politicians who refused to sign the Southern Manifesto in protest ofBROWN. Johnson's motivation over this stance was subject to debate; some thinking it was an act of "political valour" and others thinking he used it for political gain.

Johnson continued to remain careful and appeased the Southern racists, such as in 1956 when he killed a civil rights bill in Congress. Again, in keeping with his Jekyll and Hyde stance he changed his opinion in 1957. Whilst assuring Texans that there was "no foundation" to rumours he was promoting a civil rights bill, and stating he was "strongly and irrevocably opposed to forced integration of the races" he orchestrated, though diluted parts which would be offensive to southerners, the 1957 Civil Rights Act.

This dilution made fellow Southerner President Eisenhower's bill into a largely unenforceable voting rights law. The part of the bill, which allowed federal government to promote integration in schools, was lost, due to the hostility BROWN and BROWN II had received in the South. Despite Johnson's dilution of the act to make it merely a token gesture, the bill symbolised greater federal interest in civil rights and their enforcing; it also paved the way for more civil rights legislation. Johnson was also important in the passage of Eisenhower's second Civil Rights Act in 1960.

During his period as John F. Kennedy's Vice- President, racism became an increasingly important political issue. Vice- President Johnson knew something had to be done "The Negro fought in the war [ World War Two], and....he's not gonna keep taking the shit we're dishing out. We're in a race with time. If we don't act, we're gonna have blood in the streets." As Vice- President Johnson's greatest challenge was chairing Kennedy's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity (CEEO).

Johnson didn't want the job and Kennedy knew it was a 'hot potato'. Johnson told Kennedy that the CEEO lacked the money and power to be effective, but Kennedy insisted and did his best. He did so because he considered discrimination as 'un-American' and damaging to America's reputation, especially in the Cold War world. James Farmer of CORE, believed Johnson's motivation to be real and both he and Roy Wilkins of the NAACP rated Johnson higher than President Kennedy on civil rights issues. The CEEO failed to win many plaudits and shortly before Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson urged him to make a 'moral commitment' to civil rights.

Johnson became President of the USA, in November 1963 after the assassination of Kennedy. It was then that Lyndon Johnson announced his vision of a "Great Society" for America, with "an end to poverty and racial injustice". Johnson felt he and Congress owed it to the late president to see his civil rights bill passed. However Johnson was warned by other Southerners that he was staking his political career on passing this bill into law. Johnson was convinced that discrimination was morally wrong and wanted change to lead to economic, political and spiritual reintegration of the South within the nation.

The bill didn't pass unhindered. There were doubters in Congress and it also had to overcome the longest obstruction in Senate history. Its final passing owed much to Kennedy, who had won over the Republican minority before his death. Johnson was sure the bill would have passed if Kennedy were still alive but that it would have been diluted like Eisenhower's bills. Johnson must also receive credit as he devoted a staggering amount of his time, energy and political capital to ensure the passage of the bill in it original state. He used Kennedy's Kennedy's death, appeals to Southerner's self- interest and his Southern background to get what has been described as the most important piece of civil rights legislation passed.

The Act has been described by Irving Bernstein as "a rare and glittering moment in the history of American democracy". However everything wasn't content in America, there were signs of a northern working-class backlash, shown by the increase in popularity for racist presidential hopefuls, in the presidential primaries. Blacks were also dissatisfied saying it hadn't gone far enough. The result was riots in black ghettos in East Coast cities. The blacks Johnson thought he was helping, repaid him by embarrassing him and the Democrat Party. Despite this, Johnson bravely planned more civil rights legislation.

Johnson hoped his Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965 would help children to get out of the ghettos. The poorer states like Mississippi benefited greatly from the federal funding and by the end of the 1960's the percentage of African Americans obtaining a high school diploma rose from 40% to 60%. However, a combination of ghetto peer pressure and traditions and reluctant officials limited the Act's effectiveness. Johnson's 1965 Higher Education Act was more successful as it gave significant aid to poor black colleges; it led the number of African American college students to quadruple within a decade. Lyndon Johnson's introduction of Medicare and Medicaid helped to address the issue of poor health in the minorities, African American infant mortality halved within a decade.

It soon became clear to Johnson that there were still gaps that had been left by the 1964 Civil Rights Act, but Johnson feared attempts to close them would be hindered by uncooperative Southern Congressmen. After Martin Luther King's campaign in Selma, Alabama to get African Americans to register to vote Johnson felt he could act, reminding Americans that one individual's disenfranchisement "undermines the freedom of every citizen".

The 1965 Voting Rights Act had a dramatic effect on the South, changing the political complexion of the area, to make it more racially integrated. Lyndon Johnson's own Democratic Party achieved political gain as a result of the act, the enlarged black vote helped to counteract the loss of Southern whites for the Democratic Party. After this legislation it became increasingly difficult to obtain reforming acts, the 1968 Civil Rights Act doing little more to help the African American community.

Lyndon Johnson followed Kennedy's example in using his executive authority to help the African Americans. 1965-6 Johnson worked to help African Americans through manipulation of federal funding, such as offering federal subsidies to southern states, which co-operated in school desegregation (despite it being 11 years after the BROWN decision!) so he was using the immense power of the federal purse. Johnson was also seen to be pro-African Americans in other ways, by appointing an African American Supreme Court judge, Thurgood Marshall. Johnson also had African American advisors, hoping this would counteract the images of lawless African American rioters.

Johnson's positive discrimination, which later became known as 'affirmative action' was met with the expected attacks from white bigots, who felt Johnson had done more than enough for African Americans. His attempts were also hampered by the riots in Watts, Los Angeles in August 1965. These were caused by de facto segregation and discrimination, which was unspoken and therefore almost impossible to legislate against. The result of the riots was a white backlash as the purchasing of guns by suburban whites in California soared and many whites turned against Johnson's reform programme. He himself couldn't understand how the African Americans could be so politically naïve, failing to realise that their action had undermined his efforts.

After the events in Watts, Johnson kept a lower profile on the civil rights legislation. Johnson was also stopped from doing more by an increasingly awkward Congress which rejected an administration civil rights bill, one aim of which was to prohibit housing discrimination, the basis of the 1968 Civil Rights Act. Johnson's attempts to integrate housing were hampered by the Watts riots and Stokely Carmichael's call for " Black Power ". Local and State authorities also showed their reluctance to co-operate with Johnson's programmes, meaning that whilst Acts passed into law, they were still not implemented.

Johnson didn't stand for re-election in 1968 and ironically his last public appearance was at a civil rights symposium. When he died a few weeks later, 60% of the people who filed passed his coffin to pay their respects were African Americans.

What had Johnson actually achieved? He played an important role in ending de jure segregation. His 1965 Voting Rights Act transformed Southern politics and gave African Americans the chance to vote without fear; it also saw more African Americans enter politics. Johnson's Education Acts sped up the process of school desegregation, which had lagged after the initial BROWN decision and also helped African American colleges. Johnson had not only passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act but had also been instrumental in the 1957and 1960 Acts, all three had given African Americans more political and economic opportunities. Black unemployment had decreased by 34% and in that way he had contributed to his dream of a "Great Society".

However, Lyndon Johnson did not solve all as most African Americans continued to live in poor housing and suffer above average unemployment. His Great Society programmes soon became unpopular with local politicians, who resented federal intervention and ordinary Americans who disliked the redistribution of resources needed to combat poverty. De facto segregation continued especially in the South and the 1968 Civil Rights Act has been attacked as an 'empty gesture' and critics say Johnson's 'Great Society' created a welfare dependent culture.

Some African Americans were dissatisfied with Johnson's achievements, leading to the riots at Watts in 1965 and during the summer of 1966, which displayed their desire for faster progress. However it is argued that without Johnson's actions, Black Power would have a larger following. Above all, it must be remembered that Johnson was a politician and therefore always looking out for votes and being cautious not to antagonise too many people. The advances made during Johnson's presidency can naturally be attributed to his passing of legislation but it must also be remembered that events such as the assassinations of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King also acted as a catalyst for change.

Johnson like Eisenhower and Truman before him was a Southerner and whether or not he accepted it his roots were inherently racist. Many would look at him and Kennedy and predict that Irish American Kennedy, whose own family had been discriminated against, would be a champion of the civil rights movement. However that was not the case and like his Southern counterparts, it was Johnson who passed the major civil rights legislation.

Many have asked why did Johnson take civil rights so seriously and what was his motivation? Lyndon Johnson was motivated by memories of his own poverty ridden childhood and also his strong belief that helping minorities would be of spiritual and economic benefit to all Americans. Johnson also believed that racial discrimination was ironically damaging the economy of his beloved South and that the area would have to abandon its racist attitudes to gain economic prosperity. Despite Johnson's ambitions he was also a caring and compassionate man.

Naturally as a politician Johnson was constantly aware of the need to be popular to secure support, that is why he diluted the 1957 Civil Rights Act in order to win support to run instead of John F Kennedy as the Democrat presidential candidate. Lyndon Johnson however didn't want to be seen as a conservative Southerner and so to prove his ability to rise above his roots, he felt it would be advantageous to promote civil rights legislation. He hoped to stem the flow of African American voters switching to the Republicans. Johnson also acknowledged that in the late 1950's against the backdrop of BROWN and the Montgomery Bus Boycott the time was right for change. Many genuinely believe and the legislation proves that Johnson did really want to improve life for minorities and build a "Great Society".

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Lyndon Baines Johnson has been credited with being one of the most important figures in the civil rightsmovement. Johnson does have some distracters who believe that he was merely an unprincipled politician who used the civil rights issue when he realised the worth of the "Black Vote".

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:Why did Lyndon Johnson propose his ideas?

Lyndon Johnson proposed his ideas because he became a president and wanted to make america a better place again.

Sara Jaeallah

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LBJ: The Early Years

Lyndon Baines Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, near the central Texas community of Johnson City, which was named for his relatives. He was the first of five children of Sam Ealy Johnson Jr., a farmer, businessman and state legislator, and his wife, Rebekah Baines Johnson.

The young Johnson graduated from Southwest State Teachers College (now Texas State University) in San Marcos, Texas, in 1930. To help pay for his education, he taught at a school for disadvantaged Mexican-American students in south Texas.

His first-hand look at the effects of poverty and discrimination on his students made a deep impression on Johnson and sparked in him a lifelong desire to find solutions to these problems.

Did you know? In 1967, Thurgood Marshall, a civil rights lawyer and great-grandson of a slave, became the first African American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. He was nominated by President Johnson, who called it "the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place."

Lady Bird Johnson

In 1931, Johnson moved to Washington, D.C., to serve as congressional secretary for newly elected U.S. Representative Richard Kleberg of Texas. Energetic and capable, Johnson began to meet influential people and learn about the national political process.

On November 17, 1934, he married Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor, a fellow Texan with whom he later had two daughters, Lynda and Luci. Lady Bird Johnson -a soft-spoken but well-educated woman from an affluent family-became a critical part of Johnson's political success.

In 1935, Johnson returned home to become the Texas director of the National Youth Administration, a New Deal program of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (a political hero of Johnson's) that helped young people find jobs or volunteer work during the Great Depression.

Congressional Career

Johnson's political career began in earnest in 1937, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat.

Quickly earning respect as a smart and hardworking legislator, he was re-elected five times. After an unsuccessful run for a U.S. Senate seat in 1941, Johnson became the first member of Congress to volunteer for active duty in the military when the United States entered World War II.

Johnson reported for active duty in December 1941 and served in the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant commander until all members of Congress in the military were recalled to Washington in the summer of 1942.

Johnson in the Senate

In 1948, Johnson was elected to the U.S. Senate following a bruising Democratic primary. After crisscrossing Texas by helicopter, Johnson managed to eke out a victory in the primary by just 87 votes.

Once he reached the Senate, Johnson showed a deft political touch. In 1953, at age 44, he became the youngest person ever to serve as minority leader of the Senate. Two years later, when Democrats won control of Congress, Johnson became the Senate majority leader.

His ability to work productively with Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower and unite his party behind important legislation made him a powerful figure in Washington.

White House Years

In 1960, John F. Kennedy, the Democratic presidential nominee, invited Johnson to be his vice-presidential running mate. Johnson's presence on the ticket attracted the support of conservative Southern Democrats and helped lift Kennedy to a narrow victory over Republican candidate Richard M. Nixon.

On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was shot and killed while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. Johnson was sworn in as president later that day aboard Air Force One, and immediately reassured a shocked and grieving nation that he would make Kennedy's progressive vision for America a reality.

Great Society

Soon after taking office, Johnson declared a " War on Poverty." He actively pushed Congress to pass legislation attacking illiteracy, unemployment and racial discrimination.

After routing Republican candidate Barry Goldwater by more than 15 million votes in the 1964 presidential election, Johnson introduced a slate of new reforms that he said would build a " Great Society " for all Americans.

His ambitious legislative agenda created the Medicare and Medicaid programs to provide federal health insurance for elderly and poor Americans. It also included measures aimed at improving education, preventing crime and reducing air and water pollution.

Johnson also made great strides in attacking racial discrimination by signing the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. His wide-reaching achievements improved the lives of millions of Americans and contributed to economic growth and prosperity.

Johnson and the Vietnam War

Despite Johnson's success in promoting his domestic reform policies, his presidency was also defined by the failure of his policies toward Vietnam.

Like the three presidents before him, Johnson was determined to prevent North Vietnamese communists from taking over the U.S.-supported government of South Vietnam. A believer in the now-discredited " domino theory," Johnson worried that America's security depended on containing the spread of communism around the world.

As part of this effort, Johnson steadily escalated U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War. The number of American troops in Vietnam soared from 16,000 when he took office in 1963 to more than 500,000 in 1968, yet the conflict remained a bloody stalemate.

As the war dragged on and American and Vietnamese casualties mounted, anti-war protests rocked college campuses and cities across the U.S.

Johnson's popularity within his own party plummeted as well. When it appeared that he might face a stiff challenge for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination, Johnson announced his decision not to run for re-election.

"I shall not seek, nor will I accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president," he said in a nationally televised speech on March 31, 1968. Johnson explained that he wanted to focus on the peace process and pressing domestic issues during his final months in office without the distraction of a political campaign.

The conflict in Vietnam, though, brought him nothing but pain and frustration until his last days in office, and U.S. military involvement in Vietnam continued for four years after his departure from Washington in January 1969.

Johnson's Final Years

Following the inauguration of Republican President Nixon, Johnson retired to his Texas ranch, where he spent the next few years establishing his presidential library (which opened in 1971 on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin) and writing his memoirs.

Johnson died of a heart attack at age 64 on January 22, 1973, at his ranch.

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Lyndon B. Johnson - Facts, Great Society & Civil Rights

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Lyndon B. Johnson was the 36th president of the United States; he was sworn into office following the November 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. As president, Johnson launched an ambitious slate of progressive reforms aimed at creating a "Great Society" for all Americans.

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Which programs did Lyndon Johnson propose as president of the United States?

He called on the nation to move not only toward "the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society," which he defined as one that would "end poverty and racial injustice." To that end, the national government would have to set policies, establish "floors" of minimum commitments for state governments to meet, and provide additional funding to meet these goals.

Gisselle Bahena

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Where did Johnson receive the most reaction due to the civil rights acts?

Johnson received the most reaction from the south. African Americans who waged epic struggles for civil rights also altered white Southerners’ worlds. Some whites embraced the prospect of a new interracial land. Many more reacted with hostility. They feared social and political change, and grappled uncomfortably with the fact that their way of life seemed gone.

Gisselle Bahe

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When did Lyndon Johnson propose his ideas of a great society?

Lyndon Johnson proposed his ideas of a great society in May 1964.

Sara Jaeallah

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Great Society facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Great Society

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Get information, facts, and pictures about Great Society at Encyclopedia.com. Make research projects and school reports about Great Society easy with credible articles from our FREE, online encyclopedia and dictionary.

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What was the purpose of a great society?

The Great Society was a set of domestic programs proposed or enacted in the United States on the initiative of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Two main goals of the Great Society social reforms were the elimination of poverty and of racial injustice. New major spending programs that addressed education, medical care, urban problems, and transportation were launched during this period.

Gisselle Bahena

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Who was Lyndon Johnson?

Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States was elected vice president of the United States in 1960, and became the 36th president in 1963, after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. During his administration, Johnson came up with the term "Great Society" social service programs, and signed the Civil Rights Act into law, Johnson died in Texas on January 22, 1973.

Gisselle Bahena