"President Obama, three former presidents and Congressman John Lewis, the only living speaker from the 1963 March on Washington, are in Austin this week to honor former President Lyndon Baines Johnson, whose policies regarding equal rights and health care radically changed the very fabric of our nation. Presidents Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush are among those leading a series of lectures and seminars acknowledging the social achievements that were made during Johnson’s tenure.
Lewis, who nearly lost his life in the early 1960s after being viciously attacked by Alabama state troopers while leading a civil rights march, recently was quoted as saying that Johnson’s programs made it possible for millions of African-Americans to register as voters in the 1960s. He said that if Johnson had not acted to eliminate poll taxes and other unjust practices in many Southern states, there “probably would not have been a Barack Obama as president.” I am in total agreement with my colleague.
Johnson, who grew up in Central Texas, is a true American hero who deserves our admiration for all that he did to make this country a better place for all of its citizens.
The tributes in Austin are part of a Civil Rights Summit at the LBJ Presidential Library. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, which became law when Johnson signed the legislation on July 2, 1964.
The achievements of the Johnson administration were not limited to civil rights. Medicare was one of his major accomplishments. Prior to its enactment, nearly 70 percent of America’s senior citizen population did not have health insurance. All of that changed when Johnson signed Medicare into law on July 30, 1965, bringing mental comfort and security to millions of Americans ages 65 and older.
Prior to that time, those seniors who could afford health care paid for their own coverage, usually with highly inflated age-related premiums.
While many in America in 1968 viewed Johnson only through the lens of the Vietnam War, hundreds of thousands of African-Americans in the Southern United States admired him greatly. After his election as vice president, Johnson contacted some of his allies in the Texas Legislature to assist Barbara Jordan, who had worked as a volunteer in the presidential campaign.
At his urging, Texas legislators created a senatorial district in which Jordan stood a chance of being elected. They followed his orders and she became a state senator, the first African-American elected to such a post since Reconstruction. Later, Jordan became the first southern African-American female elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
When Johnson decided not to run for a second term, he returned to Texas. I was a member of the Texas Legislature, and on the day he visited the Capitol building in Austin, my son, Kirk, and I were present. Johnson died of a heart attack a week later on Jan. 22, 1973.
His funeral was held on the same day that my son celebrated his birthday. During the services, it rained as if the sky itself was crying. My son and I went to the burial site and spent time with Lady Bird Johnson and her daughters after returning from the cemetery.
Dignitaries from throughout the country and the world were present to pay their final respects to Johnson and to console members of his family. In an obituary that appeared in The New York Times, he was described as the “architect of the Great Society program, who left a legacy of progress” for the American people.
It is more than appropriate that Johnson’s life and accomplishments are celebrated in Austin, as they will be during the course of this year in Washington, D.C., and in other parts of our country. I am deeply devoted to his vision of a “Great Society.” In his spirit, it should exist forever." - Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson
Source: Waco Tribune
