Lyndon B. Johnson
A schoolteacher turned congressional operator who became the most effective Senate leader of his era, and passed the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts while escalating the war in Vietnam.
Biography
Johnson grew up poor in the Texas Hill Country and paid his way through a state teachers’ college, taking a year out to teach Mexican-American children at a segregated school in Cotulla — an experience he returned to for the rest of his life when arguing for federal aid to education. He came to Washington in 1931 as a congressional secretary, ran the National Youth Administration in Texas, and won a House seat in 1937.
Elected to the Senate in 1948 by 87 disputed votes, he became Democratic leader within four years and majority leader in 1955, where he built a reputation for counting votes and moving bills. He accepted the vice-presidential nomination in 1960 and succeeded to the presidency in Dallas on 22 November 1963.
His presidency covered the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare and Medicaid, federal aid to elementary and secondary education, immigration reform, the “War on Poverty”, and the escalation of American forces in Vietnam from roughly 16,000 advisers to more than half a million troops. He declined to seek another term in March 1968.
Education
- Johnson City High School, Texas, Graduated (1924)
- Southwest Texas State Teachers College (now Texas State University), B.S. in history and education (1930)
- Georgetown University Law Center (1934)
Military service
United States Naval Reserve, 1940–1942; lieutenant commander; awarded the Silver Star for an observation flight over New Guinea in 1942.
Offices held before the presidency
- Texas director, National Youth Administration, 1935–1937
- United States Representative from Texas, 1937–1949
- United States Senator from Texas, 1949–1961 (Majority Leader, 1955–1961)
- Vice President of the United States, 1961–1963