Preview

Lyndon B Johnson Motivation Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
458 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Lyndon B Johnson Motivation Essay
Sometimes, politically powerful men do unexpected things. Lyndon Baines Johnson went from being the Texas senator to the vice president of John F Kennedy. L.B.J was a teacher in Cotulla, Texas he taught Mexican American children grades 5-7. After John F Kennedy was assassinated and he became president. He signed a bill that turned segregation into his integration. If principal decisions are based on strongly held beliefs, then Coulla teaching, ignoring Southerners reactions, and his change heart show that president johnson was motivated to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by his principles. One reason that reveals that president Johnson principled motivation can be found in Cotulla Teaching. He taught Mexican American children that would …show more content…
He was willing to ruin his chances to win the election just so he could make a difference in America. You can see more about this in Ignoring Southern Reaction. He stated ‘If that's the price I have to pay, I'll pay it gladly.” He was putting his point out there that he didn't care if he lost the election. As long as he knew that everything would be fine and segregation was over. This is another reason that shows that LBJ did this because he believed in his heart it was truly right.

The final reason he switched beliefs was because he was finally able to speak on his behalf. In Document Change of Heart it states that he said “ You will recognize the words i am about to repeat, Free at last, thank god almighty, I am free at last.” Johnson was expressing how he was free to believe in what he wanted . He had all the right to go against segregation and go for integration. LBJ now openly discussed how he was going to change America if he won the election.

LBJ changed his beliefs because he knew it was the right thing to do. He ended up winning the election with all states except six! When he was in office, he created a program called the Great Society Program, it made sure that everything was fair for everyone. America changed for the better we were doing fine until World War II. He was the big change that the Civil Rights needed to be announced and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    to involve himself in civil rights affairs. This decision made him lose many of his white…

    • 199 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Also, before he signed the act, he was asked why it took so long for him to act on signing these rights and he responded by saying “free at last, free at last”. What did L.B.J. believe when he signed the civil rights act of 1964? The kids at the school he worked at after college didn’t know why they are disliked. They were Spanish kids who could speak…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    President Kennedys New Frontier and President Johnsons Great Society both proposed major changes to the USA under economic, social and civil rights issues. However, because some of the changes were so radical, the programs faced considerable opposition from a variety of groups and this had an effect on their success. Kennedy and Johnson both faced individual opposition to their policies. However Kennedy arguably got the worst of it because a) he was the first one to introduce these policies, and b) he could not deal with the opposition he received as well as Johnson could.…

    • 613 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Soon after President Lincoln was assassinated, Vice President Andrew Johnson took over as president. The Radical leaders believed that Lincoln’s plan was too lenient (because they wanted 50 percent instead of ten). Nevertheless, the Moderate Republicans initially supported President Johnson and gave him a chance. President Johnson was a pro-slavery Democrat therefore he received much support from the Southern whites. The favor he enjoyed in the beginning from both sides could have probably created conceit in him not thinking that the Northerners wanted the South to be in submission, and that they wanted a better situation for the African-Americans.…

    • 1173 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the 1960s America was undergoing civil and political unrest regarding the prejudice and suffrage of the black people, who had earned their freedom from slavery centuries ago. Multiple confrontations between black civil rights protesters and state police groups had occurred beforehand, but one particular attack on the protesters in Selma, Alabama pushed the ordeal into a serious state. This state of strife caused the President at the time, Lyndon B. Johnson, to urge Congress to force the end of racial segregation by allow all men of color to vote. Expressing this through his speech “We Shall Overcome”, delivered to Congress on March 16, 1965, Johnson was able to sway congress to pass the Voting Rights Act thanks to his clever uses of rhetoric.…

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Taft and Franklin D. Roosevelt were total opposites when it came to their personality and humanity. William Taft expanded the limits of his Precedential power to keep African Americans and immigrants in their place. During his inaugural address, Taft said that would not hire anymore African Americans to federal Jobs like a mailman or postmaster position. This would cause a problem for any African American that was already employed at a Federal Facility. Taft wanted to keep the African Americans in their place. Taft fails to follow the humanitarian mission historically associated with the Republican Party. This is what caused African Americans to move toward the Democratic Party.…

    • 510 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Upon entering office in 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson was faced with a number of vast challenges; specifically, a divided society and a sobering poverty rate among both whites and minorities. Yet, Johnson took said issues in stride, deciding to take action against both domestic discrimination and economic misfortune. In his term, Johnson would pass a number of bills that set the standard for today’s social welfare systems, in addition to creating a foundation for the civil rights movement, allowing progress for years to come, truly helping the United States in becoming a “Great Society”. Johnson aimed to address issues by educating the population, giving the poor and minority demographics access to a better future and a stable career path. Moreover,…

    • 196 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Johnson had a heart for those in need and acted on it. When in conversation with Senator Richard Russell of Georgia, Johnson stated that he was willing to give up his opportunity to become the president as long as the Civil Rights Act was signed. As you can see, Johnson cared more about doing what was right than winning the…

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sometimes, politically powerful men do unexpected things, LBJ was one of them. Before LBJ’s presidency he was living in an incredibly poor area and was dealing with poverty, this is the place he was born and raised, so coming to the White House was a big stretch of ways for him. LBJ wanted to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because he wanted to do what he thought was right, what he believed, that’s where his principle decision comes into place. If principle decisions are based on strongly-held beliefs, then Cotulla teaching, Ignoring Southern Reaction, and Change of Heart show that President Johnson was motivated to sign by his OWN principle beliefs.…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Many people were talking about civil rights. Lyndon Baines Johnson was born in Stonewall, Texas, on August 27, 1908. At the age of twenty he taught at a segregated Mexican- American school in Cotulla, Texas. In 1931 Johnson moved to Washington, D.C.where he worked as a congressional aide. In 1937 he won the Texas seat in the house of representative. In 1948 Johnson was elected as a senator for Texas. Six years later in 1954 he became a majority leader in the senate. During his senate years Johnson did not support federal civil rights laws. He believed that it was the job of the states to deal with the civil rights issue. However in 1957 Johnson did support a federal law on voting rights but it was watered down. In 1960 Johnson became the vice president under John F. Kennedy. Three years later Kennedy was killed and Johnson became the president of the united states. When Kennedy died a meaningful civil rights bills was struggling to get through congress. After Johnson got behind the bill it was a sure thing. On July 2, 1964 he signed the civil rights act. The bill expanded voting rights, strengthened equal employment opportunity, and guaranteed all Americans the Right to use public facilities. Why did Johnson sign the civil rights act for personal gain or out of principal.…

    • 428 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    President Lyndon B. Johnson was a key figure in a crucial time in American politics and civil rights movement. He was a liberal who had grown up poor in the state of Texas and this translated well with the American people. Furthermore, Johnson early childhood was a prelude to be his greatest ideals that defined his administration and dreams of the Great Society (Germany, 2009). President Johnson was in the forefront of social justice but did not see justice as just a race issue; he saw it as a class issue that he fought to repair. President Johnson wish was to save children by ensuring the education system was strong a trait that was said to come from his mother who valued intelligence and education (Kearns, 1976).…

    • 280 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Not every American citizen or politician was satisfied with the results of Johnson's Great Society agenda and some even felt like the government shouldn't be involved in American lives. Although Johnson's Great Society had a lasting impact on almost all future political agendas, his success was concealed by the Vietnam War. He was forced to use funds from the War on Poverty on the Vietnam War. Even more damaging to the goals of the Great Society, ever larger amounts of money were being used to fight the Vietnam War instead (Longley). Despite the work he'd done, Johnson is known as the commander-in-chief who forced American into an unwinnable war that resulted in over 58,000 American deaths (History.com Staff, “Great Society”).…

    • 445 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    After Kennedy’s assassination, President Johnson was in a rush to get the Civil Rights Act signed. Johnson did not approve of the Act in the beginning of his senate years. Later after being pushed by the citizens, politics drove him into approving the Act in order to make America happy again.…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    By passing this act, Johnson appealed to African Americans and Northern Republicans, but many Southern whites could not tolerate the idea of a black man holding office, and out of this, the Ku Klux Klan emerged. Southerners against black integration began to beat, lynch, and massacre African Americans and Radical Republican leaders.…

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    DBQ 07- Lyndon B. Johnson

    • 908 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidential reign began with the assassination of former president John F. Kennedy in 1963. While the people of the United States tried to recover from the loss of Kennedy, Johnson used it to his advantage. Many citizens did not notice that this was being done, and some even wonder if Johnson himself knew he was using it to his advantage. By him telling America that Kennedy would have wanted the Great Society, the people believed him and went through with it. Many things, both good an bad came out of the Great Society. The Great Society was Johnson’s way of fixing the problems in America, that being the political, emotional and mostly the social problems.…

    • 908 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays