1963-69 Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States (1963–1969). After serving a long career in the U.S. more...

Congress, Johnson became the thirty-seventh Vice President; in 1963, he succeeded to the presidency following President John F. Kennedy's assassination. He was a major leader of the Democratic Party and as President was responsible for the passage of key civil rights legislation and Medicare as well as the acceleration of the war in Vietnam. In 1968, his political career ended when, faced with huge opposition to the Vietnam war, he announced that he would not seek re-election.

Early years

Johnson was born in Stonewall, Texas on August 27, 1908 in a small farmhouse in a poor area on the Pedernales River. His parents, Samuel Ealy Johnson and Rebekah Baines, had three girls and two boys: LBJ and his brother, Sam Houston, and sisters Rebekah (1910-1978), Josefa (1912-1961), and Lucia (1916-1997) . Johnson attended public schools and graduated from Johnson City High School in 1924.

In 1927, Johnson enrolled in Southwest Texas State Teachers' College (now Texas State University-San Marcos). He worked his way through school, participated in debate and campus politics, edited the school newspaper, and graduated in the 1930's. Robert Caro devoted several chapters of The Path to Power, the first volume of his biography The Years of Lyndon Johnson, to detailing how Johnson's years at San Marcos cemented his skills in persuasion that he would use to great effect in his political life. This was complemented by his humbling experience of taking a year off from college, where he taught mostly Mexican immigrants at the Welhausen School in Cotulla, Texas. When he returned to Southwest State Teachers' College in 1965, after having signed the Higher Education Act, Johnson looked back fondly on this experience:

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