Abstract
Lyndon B. Johnson was a pragmatic politician, possibly the most skilled legislative tactician ever to occupy the White House; he was capable of reversing his position on controversial legislation, and he did weaken progressive legislation to insure passage, but essentially he was a social reformer. For Johnson, equality of opportunity and the chance to compete for the American dream of success had to be open to all. A number of experiences and observations fused to produce a twenty-nine year old Congressman who went to Washington in 1937, already caring deeply for the poor and the victims of racial and ethnic discrimination. He was influenced, for example, by the attitudes and beliefs of his grandfather, Sam Ealy Johnson, Sr., his mother, Rebekah Baines Johnson, and his father, Sam Ealy Johnson, Jr.; by growing up with the independent minded German-Americans who peopled the Texas Hill Country; by the experiences of his early teaching career in Cotulla, Texas; and by what he learned as Texas Director of the National Youth Administration. Johnson had a social conscience which was molded and shaped by his family, his environment, and his early experiences and observations.
Dyer, Stanford Phillips (1978). Lyndon B. Johnson and the politics of civil rights, 1935-1960 : the art of moderate leadership. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -323574.