Lyndon Johnson
Johnson was born on Aug. 27, 1908, near Johnson City, Tex., the eldest son of Sam Ealy Johnson, Jr., and Rebekah Baines Johnson. His father, a struggling farmer and cattle speculator in the hill country of Texas, provided only an uncertain income for his family. Politically active, Sam Johnson served five terms in the Texas legislature. His mother had varied cultural interests and placed high value on education; she was fiercely ambitious for her children. Johnson attended public schools in Johnson City and received a B.S. degree from Southwest Texas State Teachers College in San Marcos. He then taught for a year in Houston before going to Washington in 1931 as secretary to a Democratic ...
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National Youth Administration in Texas. This job, which Johnson held from 1935 to 1937, entailed helping young people obtain employment and schooling. It confirmed Johnson's faith in the positive potential of government and won for him a group of supporters in Texas.
In 1937, Johnson sought and won a Texas seat in Congress, where he championed public works, reclamation, and public power programs. When war came to Europe he backed Roosevelt's efforts to aid the Allies. During World War II he served a brief tour of active duty with the U.S. Navy in the Pacific (1941-42) but returned to Capitol Hill when Roosevelt recalled members of Congress from active duty. Johnson continued to support Roosevelt's military and foreign-policy programs. During the 1940s, Johnson and his wife developed profitable business ventures, including a radio station, in Texas. In 1948 he ran for the U.S. Senate, winning the Democratic party primary by only 87 votes. (This was his second try; in 1941 he had run ...
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on civil rights laws, which he supported in 1957 and 1960. Although these laws proved ineffective, Johnson had demonstrated that he was a very resourceful Senate leader.
To many northern Democrats, however, Johnson remained a sectional candidate. The presidential nomination of 1960 went to Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Kennedy, a northern Roman Catholic, then selected Johnson as his running mate to balance the Democratic ticket. In November 1960 the Democrats defeated the Republican candidates, Richard M. Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge, by a narrow margin. Johnson was appointed by Kennedy to head the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities, a post that ...
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Lyndon Johnson. (2005, September 11). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Lyndon-Johnson/33087
"Lyndon Johnson." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 11 Sep. 2005. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Lyndon-Johnson/33087>
"Lyndon Johnson." Essayworld.com. September 11, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Lyndon-Johnson/33087.
"Lyndon Johnson." Essayworld.com. September 11, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Lyndon-Johnson/33087.
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