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Twenty years before, Cohen told the author, he had considered young Representative Johnson “promising material.” Subsequently, he said, he had been somewhat put off by the “intensity” of Johnson’s ambition. But now, in 1957, talking to Johnson over lunch, he felt that the promise had been fulfilled: “He was a man with a mission”—to pass a civil
... See moreRobert A. Caro • Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson III
On November 8, 1960, Lyndon Johnson won election for both the vice presidency of the United States, on the Kennedy-Johnson ticket, and for a third term as Senator (he had had Texas law changed to allow him to run for both offices). When he won the vice presidency, he made arrangements to resign from the Senate, as he was required to do under
... See moreRobert A. Caro • Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson III
In the Senate, the South staged an angry filibuster, but with Johnson using pressure and persuasion (civil rights leader James Farmer, seated in the Oval Office, heard the President “cajoling, threatening, everything else, whatever was necessary”), the bill was passed—its key provisions intact—with remarkable speed. And even before it was passed,
... See moreRobert A. Caro • Means of Ascent: The Years of Lyndon Johnson II
Lyndon Johnson was eventually to attain the post to which he had aspired all his life. And when he did, he would as President of the United States ram to passage the great Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965, legislation that would do much to correct the deficiencies of the 1957 legislation. He would give black Americans a Voting Rights Act that was
... See moreRobert A. Caro • Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson III
Johnson’s voting record—a record twenty years long, dating back to his arrival in the House of Representatives in 1937 and continuing up to that very day—was consistent with the accent and the word. During those twenty years, he had never supported civil rights legislation—any civil rights legislation. In Senate and House alike, his record was an
... See moreRobert A. Caro • Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson III
The southern senators insisted that they were opposed to every aspect of the civil rights bill, but, listening to them closely, Johnson had come to feel that to one aspect of it they might be less opposed than to the others. While the South would not accept a Part III with or without a jury trial amendment, he realized, they might accept Part IV
... See moreRobert A. Caro • Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson III
The General Electric job was offered in May or June of 1935. On June 26, 1935, with Johnson about to accept the offer, President Roosevelt announced the creation of a new governmental agency. It would be called the National Youth Administration, its annual budget would be $50 million—and it would be administered in each state by a state director.
... See moreRobert A. Caro • The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson I
The president did not believe such a large legislative and cultural undertaking could be done on a partisan line vote. “Unless we have the Republicans joining us and helping us,” Johnson told Humphrey, “we’ll have a mutiny in this goddamn country, so we’ve got to make this an American bill and not just a Democratic bill.” He used similar language
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