Who is Lyndon Johnson?
Lyndon Johnson is the thirty-sixth President of the United States, taking over office after John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 and winning by election for a full term in 1964. Lyndon Johnson’s presidency was primarily based on what became known as the Great Society program, which was his political agenda and slogan. Under Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society agenda, congress enacted a number of programs including a department for housing and urban development, which today Americans know as HUD. Lyndon Baines Johnson was born in Texas on August 27, 1908. He graduated from high school and then attended Southwest Texas State Teachers College where he became skilled in debate before graduating in 1931. He entered the political arena through connections of his father, who served five terms in the Texas legislature. His first significant political appointment came in 1937 when he ran for Congress in a special election for the 10th Congressional District of Texas. By this time, Lyndon Johnson
People guessed a baseball player, an astronaut, anything but vice president of the United States. Where Johnson most logically might have played a constructive role in helping pass the president’s legislative agenda, he seemed to abdicate responsibility. John F. Kennedy had promised a vigorous administration, but his proposals on issues from Medicare to civil rights had stalled in Congress. The power of conservative southern Democratic committee chairmen, the death in November 1961 of Speaker Sam Rayburn, and the passive leadership style of Senator Mansfield combined to deadlock the legislative process. As part of the Kennedy administration, Johnson was moving leftward away from his former power base of southern conservatives, and this further reduced his effectiveness in planning legislative strategy. Harry McPherson noted that by mid-1963 the vice president seemed to share in the “general malaise” of the time, and that he “had grown heavy and looked miserable.” Rumors persisted that
