President+Johnson

=President Johnson=

Born 27th August, 1908. Died 22nd January, 1973
//36th President of the United States of// //America, was skillful in securing a strong CIVIL RIGHTS ACT, 1961-1963//



Lyndon B Johnson has been credited with being one of the most significant figures in the civil rights movement. Johnson became President of the USA in November 1963 after the assassination of Kennedy. It was then that Johnson announced his vision of a 'Great Society' for America, with an "end to poverty and racial injustice" (Sarah Heasman, 2006).

The Civil Rights Bill became law when the new president, Johnson, officially signed the bill on the 4th July 1964. Johnson has pushed the Bill through Congress partly out of a sense of obligation to Kennedy and, more significantly, because he believed that discrimination was morally wrong and wanted to change the lead to economic, political and spiritual reintegration of the South (Retrospective, 2008, p137). The Bill however didnt pass unhindered. There were many doubts among the Congress and it also had to overcome the longest obstruction in Senate history. Johnson's Elementary and Secondary Schools Act in 1965 purpose was to help children get out of the ghetto. The poorer states, such as Mississippi benefited greatly from the federal funding and by the end of the 1960's the percentage of African Americans obtaining a high school diploma rose from 40% to 60%. However, a combination of ghetto peer pressure and traditions and reluctant officials limited the Act's effectiveness. Johnson's 1965 Higher Education Act was more successful as it gave significant aid to poor black colleges; it led the number of African American college students to quadruple within a decade. Johnsons introduction of Medicare and Medicaid helped to address the issue of poor health in the minorities, African American infant mortality halved within a decade. In August 1965, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. The protest march from Selma to Montgomery contributed to its successful passage through Congress. By the later 1960's, voter registration in the South had increased by over 200 per cent.

Forty years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a bill that changed the face of America. It opened all public accommodations — hotels, restaurants, swimming pools — to all Americans regardless of race, color, religion or national origin. The bill also ended legal discrimination in employment on the basis of race or sex, and established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce the law. The signing ceremony represented a personal triumph for Johnson, who lobbied tirelessly on behalf of the bill. Johnson realised that he may angry people in the south states, but johnson was prepared to pass the bill because he knew it was the right thing to do.

In conjunction with the Civil Rights Movement, Johnson overcame southern resistance and convinced Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which outlawed most forms of racial segregation. media type="youtube" key="MxEauRq1WxQ" height="318" width="407" []

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