Current Event:

United States President Barack Obama recently praised former President Lyndon Baines Johnson at a summit celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964. Then-President Johnson signed the landmark measure on July 2, 1964, the day it was finally passed by Congress. The law was a major accomplishment of the civil rights movement, the main domestic issue in the United States in the 1950′s and 1960′s. One of the nation’s strongest civil rights laws, the Civil Rights Act was passed to address the widespread political, economic, and educational oppression of African Americans and other minority groups. The Civil Rights Act transformed American society by banning discrimination because of a person’s color, race, national origin, religion, or sex. It opened to all Americans hotels, motels, restaurants, and other businesses that serve the public. At that time, many businesses, especially in the South, refused to serve blacks. The 1964 Civil Rights Act also outlawed discrimination against minority voters, which included numerous state and local laws as well as violent intimidation, and guaranteed equal job opportunities for all. President Johnson, a former U.S. senator skilled in dealing with legislators, pushed the law through Congress, overcoming fierce opposition by some members. 

Lyndon Baines Johnson (AP/Wide World)

Objective:

Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) served as president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. Johnson was born on Aug. 27, 1908, in Stonewall, Texas. In 1937, Johnson was elected to the U.S. Congress as a representative from Texas. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harborin 1941, Johnson, who had been a member of the Navy Reserve for several years, asked to be called up for active duty. Johnson was sworn in as a lieutenant commander, the first congressman to go into uniform. In 1948, Johnson was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served until 1960. In that year, Johnson was elected vice president of the United States. After President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Johnson was sworn in as president. In 1964, Johnson won the presidency in a landslide election. After Kennedy’s assassination, Johnson turned his attention to the urgent domestic problems facing the country. He was highly successful in getting Congress to approve many of the social programs Kennedy had proposed, as well as many of his own. The words “Great Society” became the slogan of the Johnson domestic program. President Johnson’s skill in congressional politics was not enough, however, to overcome the problems raised by the Vietnam War. His failure to explain the deepening U.S. involvement in the war cost him much support and led to a national debate that proved disastrous to his political position. In 1968, Johnson decided to not seek a second full term as president. On Jan. 22, 1973, Johnson suffered a heart attack and died. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore Lyndon Baines Johnson and the civil rights movement, and the Lyndon Johnson timeline gives a detailed account of his life.

Words to know:

• African Americans
• Barack Obama
• Civil rights
• Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Civil rights movement
• John Fitzgerald Kennedy
• Lyndon Baines Johnson
• March on Washington
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Montgomery bus boycott
• Selma marches
• Segregation

Discussion Topics:

1. Ask your students to name famous civil rights leaders. (Students might say Viola Desmond [Canada]; Mohandas Gandhi [India]; Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu [South Africa]; Ralph Abernathy, Julian Bond, Cesar Chavez, Medgar Evers, Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks [United States].)

2. Ask your students to debate: “Who is the greatest president or head of state that your country has ever had?”

3. Ask your students to use the World Book Timelines feature to view the timelines that have been created around civil rights, including African American civil rights movement since 1954 and Martin Luther King, Jr.