LBJ: 'If You Can Convince the Lowest White Man He's Better Than the Best Colored Man ...'

“Let me make one principle of this administration abundantly clear,” Johnson said. “All of these increased opportunities—in employment, in education, in housing, and in every field—must be open to Americans of every color. As far as the writ of federal law will run, we must abolish not some, but all racial discrimination. For this is not merely an

As Stanford Dyer wrote, “Johnson was aware that his civil rights record was the subject of much concern among Texas minorities. Yet he also knew that he had everything to lose and nothing to gain politically by supporting civil rights legislation. Texas minorities would continue to support him until some Texas politician promised them more, and thi

The battle lines were now drawn: Eisenhower and Senate liberals against the conservative blocs in both parties. Lyndon Johnson, the Senate minority leader, held the key.

A key argument in Lincoln’s case against slavery was that it supported an aristocracy determined to undermine America’s promise that “the humblest man [has] an equal chance to get rich with everyone else.”

Communism exploits the dreadful philosophy that the end justifies the means.

The southern strategy marked the switch of the parties’ positions over the issue of race. Johnson knew what that meant: that the nation’s move toward equality would provide a weapon for a certain kind of politician to rise to power. In a hotel in Tennessee after a day spent seeing racial slurs scrawled on signs and an evening of bourbon, Johnson ex