Johnson, Lyndon B(aines), known as L B J 1908-73
36th President of the USA

Born near Stonewall, Texas, into a Baptist family which was involved in state politics, he worked his way through college to become a high school teacher, then a congressman's secretary before being elected a strong 'New Deal' Democrat representative in 1937. He joined the US navy immediately after Pearl Harbor, and was decorated. He was elected senator in 1948 and became Vice-President under John F Kennedy in 1960, having earlier contested the party's nomination. A professional politician, he had been majority leader in the Senate since 1955. After Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, Texas, in 1963, he became President and was returned as President in the 1964 election with a huge majority. Under his administration the Civil Rights Act (1964), introduced by Kennedy the previous year, and the Voting Rights Act (1965) were passed, making effective, if limited, improvements to the position of blacks in the USA. He also introduced, under the slogan the 'Great Society', a series of important economic and social welfare reforms, including a Medicare programme for the aged and measures to improve education. However, the ever-increasing escalation of the war in Vietnam led to active protest and growing personal unpopularity for Johnson, and in 1968 he announced his decision to retire from active politics.

Bibliography: Paul K Conkin, Big Daddy From Pedernales (1986)