Lyndon Baines Johnson, Youth, Schooling, and Rise to Power

Today we will reflect on the youth of Lyndon Johnson, and his rise to
power, as described in Doris Kearns’ award winning biography. We
ponder:
What events in his student years and in his early years in Congress
suggest that he would quickly rise through the leadership ranks?
How did his wife, Lady Bird Johnson and her family fund his early
campaigns? How did her family help them purchase the radio station that
she managed, that made them millionaires?
During the Depression, how was LBJ able to attract the attention of both
Eleanor Roosevelt and FDR? How did this help in his rise to leadership?

Please, we welcome interesting questions in the
comments. Let us learn and reflect together!
At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources
used for this video.
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script we uploaded to SlideShare, which includes
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LBJ Youth and Rise to Power

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When his biographer Doris Kearns was bouncing up
and down in his pickup truck as Lyndon managed his
Texas ranch in his retirement, he told her many
recollections of his past, his rise to power, his years
in Texas, and his childhood years on his ranch.

Rebekah Johnson, Lyndon Johnson’s mother,
from Presidential Library website.
Lyndon remembered: “I still believed my
mother was the most beautiful, sexy,
intelligent woman I had ever met, and I was
determined to recapture her wonderful
love, but not at the price of my daddy’s
respect.” “I was going to reach beyond my
father. I would finish college; I would build
great power and gain high office. Mother
would like that. I would succeed where her
own father had failed; I would go to the
Capitol and talk about great ideas. She
would never be disappointed in me again.”

His mother Rebekah was ambitious herself, but his father was nothing
more than a small-time farmer and trader, dabbling in local politics,
winning a seat in the Texas legislature. When she saw her son’s promise,
she channeled her unrealized ambition into her talented son. When he
flagged, when he disappointed her, she would sometimes withhold her
affection, giving him the silent treatment, behavior he himself would
later exhibit in his rise to power.
Though he was closer to his mother, as most children are, Lyndon also
admired his father. He had principles, he stood up for unpopular
positions, he fought the influence of the Ku Klux Klan, he fought to
improve the lives of the common folk as best he could.

Seven-year-
old LBJ
wearing his
cowboy hat
and Sam
Johnson,
LBJ’s father,
from
Presidential
Library
website.

Rebekah Johnson, Lyndon Johnson’s mother,
from Presidential Library website.
Rebekah realized early in her marriage that
Lyndon’s father was not open to intellectual
discussions. She compensated for this by
showering attention on Lyndon, who “learned
the alphabet before he was two, learned to
read and spell before he was four, and at three
could recite long passages of poetry from
Longfellow and Tennyson.” Lyndon
remembered, “I’ll never forget how much my
mother loved me when I recited those poems.
The minute I finished she would take me in her
arms and hug me so hard that I sometimes
thought I would be strangled to death.”

But later Lyndon was never comfortable around
intellectuals, seeing school as a necessary stepping-
stone to a successful career. His mother tried to
interest him in the Debate Club in high school, but
he was not interested, he was always better at
persuading people one or two at a time, after
learning their personal perspectives and interests.
Lyndon never liked reading for its own sake, he
preferred reading histories and biographies.

Lyndon
Johnson
birthplace
and ranch.

As he grew older, Lyndon drew closer to his father, enjoying his company
as he campaigned among his rural neighbors, often coming home with
freshly baked bread and other home-cooked dishes. William Jennings
Bryan’s populist movement had been popular among the farmers, his
father admired the Bull Moose Progressives led by Theodore Roosevelt
and Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom. The Civil War was in living
memory, there were elderly veterans from that war, and more attention
was paid in school to the great orators Daniel Webster and Henry Clay
who preached their devotion to the Union. There was also pride in the
history of how Sam Houston led the short-lived Republic of Texas first to
gain independence after the fated Battle of the Alamo, and then to join
the Union before the Civil War, although Texas was one of the Southern
states that later seceded to join the ill-fated Confederacy.

William
Jennings Bryan
on speaking
platform, 1908

Theodore Roosevelt Campaigning

Fall of the Alamo, by Robert Jenkins Onderdonk, 1903

LBJ later told Doris Kearns, “I
never had any bigotry in me.
My daddy wouldn’t let me. He
was a strong anti-Klansman.”
“The Klan controlled the state
when I was a boy. They
threatened to kill my dad
several times.”
Sam Johnson, Lyndon Johnson’s father, from
Presidential Library website.

Lyndon B. Johnson with his fifth, sixth, and seventh-grade classes at the Welhausen School in Cotulla, Texas.
Lyndon Johnson: College and Teaching Years

Doris Kearns tells us the entertaining story of how, in
college, he became the assistant to Cecil Evans, the
college president, and eventually shifted the control
of the student government from the jocks to the
intellectuals through tireless campaigning, door
knocking, and listening to his fellow student’s
aspirations, which foreshadowed his rise in the
Senate many years later.

Lyndon wrote in the school paper:
“What you accomplish in life
depends almost completely upon
what you make yourself do.”
“Perfect concentration and a great
desire will bring a person success in
any field of work he chooses. The
very first thing one should do is to
train the mind to concentrate upon
the essentials and discard the
frivolous and unimportant.”
Lyndon Johnson, Southwest Texas State College, 1927.

Lyndon wrote in a school paper
editorial:
“The world today is looking for
men who are not for sale;
Men who are masters of
themselves and their tempers;
Men who place principle above
all else;
Men who are honest and true;
Men who love work and the
contentment it brings;
Men who are willing to lose sight
of self, ease, and pleasure in the
effort to serve others.”
LBJ in Finland, 1963

LBJ continues, “Duty drives devotees with a
relentless hand through trials that seem
intolerable. No labor is too arduous for
Duty to exact, no sacrifice too great for her
to demand, no service beyond her
command.” Kearns writes, “His mother
Rebekah insisted that, in politics, the true
gentleman always proceeded with the
most splendid of motives in pursuit of the
highest ideals;” “every action should be for
the common good and public benevolence
demonstrating a Christian spirit.”
LBJ in Navy Uniform, 1942

On the recommendation of Cecil Evans, the college
president, Lyndon spent nine months as the school
principal of an elementary school in Cotulla, Texas.
Three-quarters of the residents were Mexican, few
spoke English, all struggled to survive in a dry and
treeless land.

Johnson said he was determined to improve the “lives of those poor little kids. I saw hunger in their eyes
and pain in their bodies. Those little brown bodies had so little and needed so much. I was determined to
spark something inside them, to fill their souls with ambition and interest and belief in the future.”

He spent half of his first month’s salary on softball
bats and gloves, basketballs, and volleyballs. He
helped coach their teams and their debating clubs.
But these activities ceased soon after he left to teach
high school for the next year.

Lyndon Leaves to Work in Washington, DC

After a local politician asked him to successfully manage his campaign for the Texas
legislature, he recommended Johnson for a staff position for Richard Kleberg, an
incoming Congressman. He would spend nearly two decades in Washington, moving
up to the pinnacle of the ladder.
When he arrived in Washington, he rented a room in the Dodge Hotel, as did many
other Congressional assistants. In the first few weeks, he took multiple showers and
brushed his teeth multiple times to meet as many of his neighbors as possible, so he
could pick the shrewdest and most informed to be his teachers.
Richard Kleberg was more interested in the Washington social scene than his official
functions. This gave Lyndon great latitude in running the office, addressing concerns
of his constituents, resolving whatever difficulties they faced in their dealings with
various federal bureaucracies, often working weekends and eighteen-hour days.
Kleberg’s office gained a reputation for zealously lobbying the federal bureaucracy
to protect the interests of his constituents, solving their problems.

Lyndon B. Johnson
with fellow staff
members for Texas
Congressman
Richard Kleberg,
Gene Lattimer, left,
and L.E. Jones, right,
1933-1935 on Capitol
Hill in Washington,
D.C., from
Presidential Library
website.

Lyndon had a knack for transforming menial posts into politically
influential positions. He volunteered to be a Democratic doorkeeper,
which previously was filled by teenage relatives of Congressmen. The
doorkeeper would bring cards from visitors to Congressmen on the
House floor. He used this post to observe the give and take of
congressional actions, to learn the practical aspects of the House rules,
and to converse and build relationships with other Congressmen.
The legislative secretaries, or aides of the Congressmen belonged to a
discussion group called the Little Congress. He intensely lobbied the aides
to become the youngest Speaker of this discussion group, proposing that
they invite more interesting speakers to their meetings, enhancing the
group’s influence on the Hill.

Lyndon B. Johnson campaigning in Illinois, 1964

On a short trip to Austin, Texas, LBJ met Claudia Taylor, who had graduated from the
top of her class, earning a degree in journalism. She was sharp, she was shy, she was
sensitive, and best of all, absolutely dependable. He suggested that they have
breakfast the next morning, followed by a drive in the country. He was very open
about his “teaching, his salary as a Congressional secretary, his ambitions,” and
about his family, especially his mother, whom he opined would love to meet her.
Claudia agreed, so he immediately changed course to drive her to the ranch. His
mother Rebekah adored Claudia.
A week later, she introduced Lyndon to her father and family. Her father had risen
from humble circumstances to become a successful businessman. Her father took
her aside to tell her, “Daughter, you have been bringing home a lot of boys. But this
time you have brought home a man.” They were married within the month, she is
better known by her nickname, Lady Bird Johnson.

Newlyweds
Lyndon and Lady
Bird Johnson on
their November
1934
honeymoon,
from
Presidential
Library website.

Newlyweds
Lyndon and Lady
Bird Johnson on
their November
1934
honeymoon,
from
Presidential
Library website.
Her father took her aside to tell he, “Daughter, you have been
bringing home a lot of boys. But this time you have brought a man.”

Like Rebekah, Lady Bird was as strong woman. Soon after
World War II ended, Lyndon heard that a small local
bankrupt radio station was up for sale. Lady Bird’s father
lent them the money to buy the station, which Lady Bird
ran in a day when it was unusual for women to run
businesses. She ran the station prudently; the radio station
made them millionaires. No doubt Lyndon’s political
influence smoothed the way over regulatory hurdles, but
Kearns reports that there is no indication that he actively
intervened in the government’s oversight of her business.

President Franklin
D Roosevelt (left),
Texas governor
Allred (right), and
Lyndon Johnson
(center) in 1937
Lyndon ensured his quick rise to power by quickly reacting to opportunities. Kearns
tells us that in June 1935, “President Roosevelt created, by Executive Order, the
National Youth Organization., to provide jobs for hundreds of thousands of young
people forced out of work or school during the Great Depression.”

The afternoon after the order was signed, Lyndon phoned Sam Rayburn
and other contacts in the House to have him appointed Director of the
Texas NYO.
Lyndon saw this as an opportunity to build a constituency for a future
Congressional campaign. With his characteristic energy, he crisscrossed
the state of Texas, speaking to hundreds of government and business
officials to collaborate on jobs for young people, providing materials,
housing, and supervision for the government funded jobs. Within six
months, eighteen thousand Texan youths were put to work in a variety of
jobs. When Eleanor Roosevelt visited Texas, she wanted to meet this
brilliant young man she had heard so much about.

President Franklin
D Roosevelt (left),
Texas governor
Allred (right), and
Lyndon Johnson
(center) in 1937

Lyndon Johnson, Texas Congressman

Lyndon did not have long to wait. One afternoon, he saw the headlines
announcing that his Congressman Buchanan had died. Immediately he
discussed this with Lady Bird, her father agreed to donate ten thousand
dollars to his campaign, a handy sum during the Depression. Several days
after his funeral, Lyndon announced his candidacy to the residents of
Johnson City.
Lyndon campaigned feverishly for forty-two days, visiting every village in
the district, shaking hands with everyone he met, even farmers plowing
their fields, speaking wherever he could. But in the last week of the
campaign, he developed severe stomach pains. He had appendicitis, he
learned of his landslide victory in his hospital bed.

Shortly after his election, LBJ was invited to meet
President Roosevelt who was on a cruise in the Gulf of
Mexico. LBJ talked to FDR like they were old friends,
talking about naval matters, since LBJ knew the President
had formerly been the Assistant Secretary to the Navy. FDR
told him to call Tom Corcoran, his aide, who paved the way
for his assignment on the coveted House Committee on
Naval Affairs. LBJ used his easy access to the White House
to lobby for several WPA projects and to bring electrical
power to rural areas of Texas.

Then the senator from Texas passed away, and once
again LBJ vigorously campaigned for the vacant
Senate seat. But this time he faced stiffer opposition;
he lost narrowly by only thirteen hundred votes. This
was an impressive showing for a new Congressman.

Congressman
Lyndon B.
Johnson and
Mattie Malone
examine an
electric light
fixture in
Carthage, Texas
during Johnson's
1941 US Senate
campaign, from
Presidential
Library website.

Five months later, the Japanese attacked Pearl
Harbor, drawing the United States into World War II.
The next day LBJ enlisted in the Navy. He earned the
Silver Star, but a year later, FDR ordered that all
Senators and Congressmen in the Armed Forces
return to Capitol Hill.

Gen. Ralph
Royce and
Brig. General
Martin F.
Scanlon greet
Lt.
Commander
Lyndon B.
Johnson upon
his arrival to
Naval Duty in
the Pacific,
from
Presidential
Library
website.

Gen. Ralph
Royce and
Brig. General
Martin F.
Scanlon greet
Lt.
Commander
Lyndon B.
Johnson upon
his arrival to
Naval Duty in
the Pacific,
from
Presidential
Library
website.
LBJ later exclaimed, “From my experience in World War II, I learned that war
is caused by a lust for power by a few evil leaders and by a weakness on the
part of the people whose love for peace too often displays a lack of courage
that serves as an open invitation to all the aggressors of the world.”

Control of House, Senate, and Presidency

When reflecting on LBJ’s political career, it is helpful to know when the Democrats
and Republicans were in control of the Presidency and both houses of Congress. For
most of the years LBJ served in public office, the Democratic Party controlled
Congress and the Presidency. However, the Democrats temporarily lost control of
the House and Senate in the mid-term elections after Truman became President
when FDR died, but they regained control of both houses when Truman
unexpectedly beat Dewey in the 1948 elections, even with Southern Democrats
running a third-party Dixiecrat candidate opposing civil rights. The Republicans
regained control of both the Senate and the House when Eisenhower was elected
President in 1952, but Democrats regained control of both houses of Congress
during Eisenhower’s midterm elections in 1954. The Democrats retained control of
Congress for many years afterwards, including during the Nixon Presidency.

Lyndon Johnson, Senator From Texas
Lyndon B. Johnson in 1948 Senate Campaign, from LBJ Library website.

In 1948, the other Texas Senator resigned. LBJ campaigned
with his usual manic vigor, and in the final week of this
campaign, he was hospitalized for kidney stones. With the
help of his campaign manager John Connally, he won the
seat by only eighty-seven out of nine-hundred thousand
votes, earning him the nickname, Landslide Lyndon.
The freshman Senate class of 1948 was exceptional, it also
included Hubert Humphrey, Estes Kefauver, and Russell
Long of Louisiana, son of the popular populist Kingfish,
Huey Long.

Kearns writes, “Power in the Senate
had been exercised since 1937 by
an informal coalition of
conservative Republicans and
Southern Democrats, in which,
during the Truman years, the
conservative Republicans agreed to
vote with the South against civil
rights legislation if the Southern
Democrats voted against Truman’s
social and economic legislation.” LBJ, Senator Richard Russell, and William Knowland
discuss Civil Rights Bill of 1957, from LBJ Library website.

Since his constituency was conservative, LBJ felt compelled to vote with this
informal coalition most of the time. Since he did support some civil rights
endeavors, he declined to join the Southern caucus of twenty-two Southern
Senators, unwilling to be branded as a conservative. He showed deference to the
Senate leaders, rarely speaking out against the majority positions. Although he
began as one of the least well-known Senators, within three years LBJ was elected
party whip, part of the leadership of the Senate.
After he was elected to be Senate Minority Leader, Johnson was in his element, he
excelled in bargaining with individual Senators, he was able to build a profile on
each one, learning who their constituencies were, their political positions and
aspirations, what was their deeply held beliefs and convictions. He was one of the
most effective Senate leaders in history. Although Eisenhower was easily reelected
in 1956, the Democrats won back control of both the House and the Senate during
the 1954 midterm elections, making LBJ the Senate Majority Leader.

President
Eisenhower
signed a bill,
and Senator
Lyndon B.
Johnson
looks on,
1955

LBJ could be quite convincing, two
journalists describe how intense he
could be: “The Treatment could last
ten minutes or four hours. It came,
enveloping its target, at the Johnson
Ranch swimming pool, in one of
Johnson's offices, in the Senate
cloakroom, on the floor of the Senate
itself: wherever Johnson might find a
fellow Senator within his reach. Its
tone could be supplication,
accusation, cajolery, exuberance,
scorn, tears, complaint, and the hint
of threat. It was all of these together.” President Lyndon Johnson giving "The Treatment" to
U.S. Senator Richard Russell Jr. in 1963

“The Treatment ran the gamut of
human emotions. Its velocity was
breathtaking, and it was all in one
direction. Interjections from the target
were rare. Johnson anticipated them
before they could be spoken. He moved
in close, his face a scant millimeter from
his target, his eyes widening and
narrowing, his eyebrows rising and
falling. From his pockets poured
clippings, memos, statistics. Mimicry,
humor, and the genius of analogy made
The Treatment an almost hypnotic
experience and rendered the target
stunned and helpless.”
President Lyndon Johnson giving "The Treatment" to
U.S. Senator Richard Russell Jr. in 1963

Like any good congressional leader, LBJ would not permit a
bill to hit the floor of the Senate, let alone debate the
issue, before he knew how the Senators would vote, which
led many in the press to accuse him of manipulation and
corruption because the process seemed opaque. This
consultative style also helped him negotiate with a popular
Republican President. Previously FDR governed during the
war as a bipartisan president, even appointing a
Republican to his Cabinet, this bipartisan spirit persisted
under the Eisenhower administration.

Johnson complained to Kearns that all this “fuss
about democracy and procedure had nothing to
do with my leadership and everything to do
about liberal’s need to criticize. First, they tell
me they want a strong leader in the Senate so
they can get results. So, I give them leadership
and I get results. Then they change their tune,
and say that what they really want is
democracy, and participation, and decentralized
leadership.” Kearns notes that “to Johnson
debate could involve issues of principle, such as
to assist the blacks or restrain the unions, but
not the method to achieve results.”
JBJ’s US Senate portrait in the 1950s

A year after LBJ was selected to be the Senate
Minority Leader, the Supreme Court in 1954 handed
down its landmark decision, Brown v Board of
Education, which mandated that public schools be
desegregated with “all deliberate speed.” This
oxymoronic phrase was used since the court knew
that many in the South would resist desegregating
their schools.

“The problem
we all live with”,
by Norman
Rockwell, 1960,
Ruby Bridges
entered first
grade under
court-ordered
desegregation
of New Orleans
public schools

The Republican President Eisenhower reluctantly
supported various civil rights issues. He dispatched federal
troops to enforce the desegregation of the schools in Little
Rock, Arkansas. When Governor Orval Faubus opposed the
enforcement of the Supreme Court Brown decision, the
general in Eisenhower could not tolerate this
insubordination. The defiant and often violent reaction of
Southerners was one reason the Democrats increased
their control of the House and Senate in the 1956
elections.

Nine students leave Central High, Little Rock,
Arkansas, under U.S. Army escort, 1957

When Governor Faubus attempted to use the
Arkansas National Guard to block black students
from attending Little Rock Central High School in
1957, Eisenhower then federalized the state’s
National Guard, and instead used them to protect
the black students chosen by the NAACP to attend
the high school.

Orval
Faubus
speaks to
crowd
protesting
integration
of Little
Rock
schools

LBJ believed that normally the President
should take the lead in proposing major
legislation, and Eisenhower’s Attorney
General convinced him to submit the Civil
Rights Act to Congress. Kearns tells us that
this bill had three provisions:
• “The creation of a Civil Rights division
within the Justice Department.
• Gave the Justice Department authority to
intervene on behalf of individuals whose
civil rights were being violated in housing,
education, voting, or law enforcement.
• Appoint a Civil Rights Commission to
recommend further legislation.”
Dwight Eisenhower signing the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Previous civil rights bills over the past two decades were
strangled in Congress by the Southern Senators and
Congressmen who controlled the major committees through
their tenure, and this civil rights bill was initially delayed.
However, political pressure during and after the 1956 elections,
coupled with the persistent lobbying by Lyndon Johnson, finally
saw the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Many in the press
gave Lyndon Johnson credit for the passage of this bill. Although
this was not a comprehensive civil rights bill, it was an excellent
beginning.

Little Rock, Arkansas, 1959. Rally at the state capitol, protesting
the integration of Central High School.

Next, we will reflect on how LBJ was chosen to be
John F Kennedy’s Vice President, ascending to the
Presidency a few years later after the assassination of
JFK. We will reflect on how he shepherded the Civil
Rights and Great Society legislation through
Congress, and how the Vietnam War damaged his
legacy.

Doris Kearns’ biography, Lyndon Johnson, An American Dream, was part
autobiography, because one of her main sources were her notes of the
hundreds of hours she interviewed him after his retirement when she
lived at his ranch during her school breaks and summers, both soon after
he awoke early in the morning, and bouncing in his pickup truck as he
looked after his sprawling ranch.
Freud was more in vogue in the Seventies, she was part amateur
psychoanalyst, although she suspected he may have manufactured some
of the dreams he claimed to experience that she recounts in the book.
His mother truly played an outsized role in his life, and her psychological
speculations are backed up by perhaps the largest number of personal
interviews any modern biographer has heard. Doris Kearns later married;
she is now Doris Kearns Goodwin.

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Lyndon Baines Johnson, Youth, Schooling, and Rise to Power

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Lyndon Baines Johnson, Youth, Schooling, and Rise to Power