Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908 - 1973)

Lyndon Baines Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson was an American politician and statesman, the 36th President of the United States (1963-1969).

Johnson was from a Texas farming family and graduated from Southwestern State Teachers College (now Texas State University) in San Marcos, Texas. In 1931, he began serving as Secretary of Congress for newly elected U.S. Representative Richard Kleberg. In 1935 Johnson was appointed Texas director of the National Youth Administration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal program. Roosevelt, which helped young people find jobs during the Great Depression. In 1937, Lyndon Johnson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat.

He served briefly in the U.S. Navy during World War II with the rank of lieutenant commander, and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1948. In 1960, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy invited Johnson to be his running mate for vice president. He was elected vice president, and after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, he was sworn in and assumed the presidency on the same day, November 22, 1963.

President Lyndon Johnson soon declared a war on poverty. In the 1964 presidential election, he defeated his Republican rival and introduced a list of new reforms that he was convinced would build a "great society" for all Americans. Johnson also made great strides against racial discrimination, signing the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In foreign policy, however, Johnson could not boast of successes. Increased U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War and heavy casualties led to a sharp rise in anti-war sentiment in the country. Lyndon Johnson's ratings steadily declined, eventually he refused to run for a second term and in January 1969 returned to his ranch in Texas. He spent the last years of his life as a librarian, writing his memoirs and died at the age of 64. Lyndon Johnson has a reputation as one of the least popular presidents in American history.