The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels

Serving from 1963 to 1969, Lyndon B. Johnson was the 36th president of the United States. Born in 1908 in a small farmhouse in Texas, Johnson represented his home state in Congress as a Democrat from 1937 to 1961, when he became vice president under John F. Kennedy. During his time in Congress, Johnson erred on the side of Southern segregationists, according to Meacham. And while he refused to sign the 1956 Southern manifesto that protested the Supreme Court’s decisions on segregation, he often weakened civil rights laws in the Senate.

Following the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy, Johnson became far more progressive in his actions and rhetoric on civil rights. Eager to continue the work done by his predecessor to pass landmark civil rights legislation, Johnson tracked down Martin Luther King Jr. on the night of Kennedy’s funeral. When advised to slow down until the 1964 election, Johnson uttered the famous phrase, “What in the hell is the presidency for?” (212). After an intense fight in the Senate, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law in July of that year. According to Meacham, Johnson’s experience as a Southern Democrat in the Senate made him better suited to convincing segregationists to join his cause than Kennedy.