Shortly after his succession to the Presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson called his domestic policy staff and cabinet top officials and gave them direction for his major legislative initiatives. He intended to pass the Civil Rights Act on 1964 using, in part, the impact of Prsident Kennedys assassination to gain some support and then to pass the Voting Rights Act in 1965. These bills were a monumental change in Americas Constutional protections for minorities. A native Texan LBJ knew the days of the conservative Southern Democtrats would be over and so he directed the leaders to pass very piece of education and related legislation they could in the first 18 months after his 1964 re-election. It was the most sweeping legislative program before or since. He told the audience that after the Civil Rights Bills his political capital would be used up in 18 months. Johnson was wrong in one assumption. He felt that working class whites would join with minorities, labor and progressives to build a new Democratic majority over the coming years. As we know that has not happened in the 50 years since, with whites forming a solid Republcan block in the South despite the fact that these Southern states are at the bottom of the nations economic ladder.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 16:12:32 +0000
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