maybe we can get through lbj in that period. >> i can do that. >> there's a terrible book out on it. unbelievable. it makes him appear like a god damn animal. of course, he was. >> it's important to reflect and

look back and see what has been done, because there's no better way to judge the future than by the past. >> it's been half a center since lbj was in the oval office. he remains this misunderstood, enigmatic figure. some people think he was a power hungry warmonger. >> for me, lyndon johnson was the devil. >> the president is authorized to prevent aggression. >> nothing was beyond his capacity of doing when he wanted it. >> he lied to the american public. >> other people think he was the greatest civil rights president since abraham lincoln. >> liberals will praise this guy left and right. >> this man was a racist through and through. >> lyndon johnson was not a racist. he was a white southern man. >> he is the best civil rights president we ever had in america. in. >> the three greater politicians were theodore roosevelt,

franklin d. roosevelt and lyndon johnson. >> legislative genius. >> obnoxious. >> it is hard to nail him down. >> what remains undeniable is this is one of the most consequential presidencies in american history. >> no president ever came to this office on a platform of doing what was wrong . >> in fort worth this more than, in drizzling rain, thousands gathered around the presidential hotel, many starting nearly three hours before the kennedys were to come out. >> i was working for

westinghouse broadcasting. the election was coming up in '64. this was '63. the idea was to make sure that texas was a kennedy state. >> presidents didn't travel much many those days, to start with. not nearly as much as they do now. when it was announced he was coming to texas, it was a big deal. we were all so excited in ft. worth. >> president kennedy wanted to come to texas to raise money. the governor discouraged it. the president wasn't very popular, at least in texas. the polls showed him in jeopardy. >> the thing that helped kennedy the most was lyndon johnson. he had been senator before that. >> johnson didn't just dominate texas politics. he was texas politics. >> we left fort. worth ahead of

air force one. we landed in dallas around 11:30. we got off the plane and shook hands with a group that were there to receive the president. we moved back with the dignitaries, welcomed the president and mrs. kennedy as they came off the plane. he was happy and smiling and i think stimulated by the ft. worth experience that morning. mrs. kennedy looked charming in that pink suit. >> they both are in the back seat. the presidential car moving out. the president and first lady head out for downtown dallas where thousands should be on the street right now awaiting for a view of the president and his wife. >> then we got in the motorcade, drove downtown. i was eight car lengths behind the presidential limousine.

>> the president's car is turning onto elm street. >> at elm and houston streets, we heard the shots. >> it appears as though something has happened in the motorcade group. >> once we heard some sound, almost instantaneously, secret service jumped over the front seat and shoved me to the bottom of the lincoln. he put his body between me and the crowd. one of them said, let's get out of here quick. the next thing, we were on the way to the hospital. almost shoved us into a room, first room you come to, down the corridor. pulled the shades in the room. closed it. we sat there and endured the agony and wait for the reports that came in from time to time.

>> i think that they told me the governor had been shot. the president was gone. >> i just totally lost it. my first thoughts when it happened was, why did this have to happen in texas? i was embarrassed. it was horrible. it was tragic. on top of that, we didn't know what it meant. >> at parkland hospital, we all were filing. as i was file, a white house official grabbed me and pulled me away from the telephone. i said, what the hell are you doing? he said, we need you right now. i cannot tell you why. just come with me. the police officers took the car at 75, 80 miles an hour to get to the airport.

air force one was waiting for the press. i'm convinced that it was president johnson who told the assistant press secretary, i want the press on that airport. he wanted it reported correctly. he didn't want any rumors. he wanted reporters there. >> whatever emotions or passions, put them under strict discipline. he was very quiet and seemingly very much in command of himself. >> he said, does anybody in this plane know the oath of office? nobody did word for word, precisely. he said, you will have to call the attorney general and ask him. what an excruciating call. the attorney general was bobby kennedy. >> about this time, judge hughs came aboard the airplane. mrs. kennedy came at that time, mrs. johnson to his right. >> the coolest man on the

airplane was lyndon johnson. he said to the federal judge, sara hughs, proceed. >> i solemnly swear -- >> i solemnly swear. >> that i will faithfully execute. >> that i will faithfully execute. >> the office of president of the united states. >> the office of president of the united states. >> and will to the best of my ability. >> and will to the best of my ability. >> preserve. >> preserve. >> protect. >> protect. >> and defend. >> and defend. >> the constitution of the united states. >> the constitution of the united states. >> so help me god. >> so help me god. with unitedhealthcare medicare advantage plans, there's so much to take advantage of. like $0 copays on virtual visits... - wow! - uh-huh. ...$0 copays on primary care visits... ...and lab tests. - wow. - uh-huh. plus, $0 copays on tier 1 & tier 2 prescription drugs.

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never had any responsibility like that. but i have not been free of problems or troubles all my life. and responsibilities. my knowledge of history, i knew what had confronted vice presidents before. >> the end of the oath, lbj turned and embraced mrs. kennedy and he kissed mrs. johnson. he wanted us to get out of dallas to get back to washington as soon as possible. j johnson said, let's get airborne. the democratic congressmen had their hand out to shake his hand. i saw him. president johnson had his hands below his belt. you couldn't see him on camera. he went like this. everything about -- that he did on that airplane was directed toward mrs. kennedy.

lyndon johnson had many wonderful days, but that day in dallas, he was magnificent. >> i wish to god there was something that i could do. i wanted to tell you that we are grieving with you. >> thank you very much. thank you very much. i know you loved jack and he loved you. >> lyndon johnson finds himself now being the president of the united states. just on a human level, it's hard to imagine what that must have felt like. clearly, his leadership skills, his sense of direction and what needed to happen kicked in. it was like it is an innate sense for him. >> he knew that the country needed leadership. and he realized also that it was all in his hands at that point.

>> i remember thinking, is this the beginning of world war iii? so that was the country when lyndon johnson became president. that was the country he was dealing with. >> this is a sad time for all people. we have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed. i will do my best. that is all i can do. i ask for your help and god's. >> the thing that concerned me and those around me very much was trying to give the world a picture of stability and to give them a confidence that we are not rudderless. we have a person that the constitution provides shall

succeed to the presidency. and he has already succeeded. he is in a position to transact business and take whatever action he needs to take to protect the republic. >> there was a great blur of activity that night. congressional leaders came to be ushered in to see the president. we stayed with him until about 4:00 in the morning. >> the night of november 22nd, that night he was up late, late, late in the night, thinking about what the priorities were, what could we do, how could we bring this country together, how could we make it a better place? he wasn't going to wait for anything. >> frankly, mr. speaker, i can't sit still. i have to keep the government going. we have the budget to resolve next week. >> he was obsessive. he wanted to get things done. no one outworked lbj. he once said, i only think about politics 18 hours a day. >> think about going away for

thanksgiving. >> i'm afraid to. i don't have enough -- i haven't read a third of the stuff i need to read. i read until 2:00 in the morning. he didn't tell me when he made me vice president. going to get harder. >> an assassin's bullet has thrust upon me the awesome burden of the presidency. >> i think most of the historians that were anticipating the presidency of l lyndon johnson felt when we lost president kennedy, we lost an opportunity to move forward. we never felt that. >> following the assassination, i met with dr. king. we met at the eastern airlines

terminal in la guardia airport. for the next 3 1/2 hours, almost 4 hours, we discussed what was the meaning of the consequences of this assassination. in our discussion, we never used these words, because it would be so cruel. but we saw the assassination of kennedy as a god-given opportunity for us in civil rights. not that we wanted president k kennedy assassinated. we had to deal with the cards we had been dealt. we looked at those cards and said, this is reality now. we got a white man from texas. if anybody can deal with the segregationists, it's mostly to be lyndon johnson. we had to take advantage of that.

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i did say one thing and i repeat it to you that -- excuse me for saying -- i have to get used to this, mr. president. >> you have been saying it a long time. >> one of the legacies that john kennedy left to the american people is when he chose.

>> thank you. i'm not worthy of it. i will try to be. >> lbj was intensely aware that he came into the office under the cloak of tragedy. lady bird johnson said she felt like people were looking at the living but wishing for the dead. >> there was always that sense that he was no john kennedy. indeed, he wasn't. >> anything that i did that someone didn't approve of, they would always feel that president kennedy wouldn't have done that. my conduct in the office being contrasted with president kennedy's conduct in office. my accent and his accent. my background and his background. >> his style was 180 degrees from john kennedy. kennedy was polished, harvard. lbj was hill country. cowboy hat, boots. >> washington at that time was disproportionally influenced by the ivy league elite.

lbj was not from the ivy league, nor was he ever elite. >> thank you. we feel like a country dog. >> you never had to guess where lyndon johnson was coming from. he was coming from that growing up in the hill country of texas. >> named the town johnson city after my grandfather and his cousin. headquarters of the ranch where they assembled the cattle. >> he came from nothing. no running water. no electricity. >> he had four siblings. he had a mother who thought he was absolutely perfect. she was the intellectual side. she valued education. >> she, herself, had a college degree. her husband, sam johnson, he was in the legislature, the texas legislature. >> he was a farmer who has to

depend upon nature for much of his success. >> his father went from rags to riches to rags to riches to rags. lbj i think felt the scorn in town when his father found himself to be poor. the stature of the johnsons fell overnight with the fall of cotton prices. >> he understood what it felt like to be poor. it was not an easy life. >> once 8 or 10 had a shoe shining job. he put an ad in the paper. best shine in town. >> he picked ed cotton until h fingers would bleed. he knew what it was like to have to sacrifice. >> all of my life, i have wanted be a public servant. my father ahead of me was. i grew up wanting to help people with their problems.

>> he felt like he was judged by those ivy leaguers who dominated washington, because he where he was from, because of how he spoke. he felt, i think in his own mind, he paled in comparison to them. and yet he dominated them on any given day. that insecurity was -- those were demons that roamed around lbj's consciousness at any given time. >> he turned that to a positive. it drove him to try to do things no one else had ever achieved. >> we had read about his growing up in the texas hill country. we put a lot of trust in that. believe it or not, most of us in the south had grown up with white people. we were very comfortable with white southerners. the kennedys really knew nothing about race. not because they didn't like us or didn't agree. they really didn't understand segregation.

didn't know how to deal with it. and keep the south. up until that time, there was almost no civil rights legislation. the things kennedy did, he did with executive orders. that wasn't much. >> kennedy was reluctant to to support civil rights because he didn't think it would pass congress. so he didn't think it was worth investing any political capital whatsoever. >> lyndon johnson knew all too well what was at stake. martin used to say, look, nobody can blame me because i was born black. i can't blame him because he was born white. what we can do something about though is the unjust relationship that exists between us. i think that lyndon johnson started off right after the assassination by making himself very accessible to dr. king. >> i want to tell you how grateful i am and how worthy i'm going to try to be of all your

hopes. >> well, thank you very much. i'm so happy to hear that. i knew you had just that great spirit. you know, you have our support and backing. we know what a difficult period this is. >> it's an impossible period. >> he hadn't yet figured out how to deal with president johnson. he said, you know, when you meet with president kennedy, he would ask questions for an hour. when you met with president johnson, he would talk for an hour. >> one of the great tributes we can pay in memory of president kennedy is to try to enact some of the great progressive policies that he sought to initiate. >> i'm going to support them all. you can count on that. i'm going to do my best to get other men to do like wwise. >> when johnson takes over for kennedy, somehow he was able to

see a path to the passing of civil rights legislation. johnson immediately assumes the mantle of the martyred president and says that we will pass federal civil rights legislation as a tribute to john f. kennedy. >> no memorial or eulogy could more eloquently honor president kennedy's memory than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill for which he fought so long. >> you haven't been elected. you have to run for re-election. you want to take on civil rights, which is -- talk about stir the pot in the south. that's like throwing a match on gasoline in the south. as he said to his aides, what the hell is the presidency for? if you are not going to do something bold, why be here?

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and say, what is my program going to be? >> i will have been in washington 30 years come next year. i was first elected to congress when i was 28 in 1937. >> he came here as a young congressman during the depression. he made a name for himself because he was a whirlwind. he represented the state of texas. he did all he could to get as many government projects down there. >> one of his great achievements and one of the things that had endeared him to president roosevelt was his hard work and bringing electricity to rural areas of texas. >> when he campaigned during the depression, mostly women come to hear him. one of the jobs the wife had was to draw water from the well. these women all day long, your back isn't going to last very long. johnson would get crowds down there. i promise we will bring lights, bring you the lights meant bringing electricity so they

wouldn't have to pull that bucket. have a pump to do it. vote for me and you won't look like your mother. you can't get more powerful. >> the first politician i ever saw or had any consciousness of was lyndon johnson. >> that would have been 1948 he was running for the senate. i was 11 years old. we heard he was coming to the vacant lot where we played baseball in ft. worth. it was a big event in the neighborhood, because we heard he was coming in a helicopter. we had never seen a helicopter. he had a bullhorn. he would say, come to the speaking at the football field. finally, the thing settled down. it landed there. then he stepped out. he waved at everybody. he would sometimes make as many as 16 stops a day as he crossed texas in that helicopter. he was elected, that was when he

was elected by 87 votes. they called it landslide lyndon. >> this is texas politics at the time. it's the way the game was played. i think johnson won it legitimately. but i'm not completely certain of that. there are elements of that story that are tough for me to pin down. >> this was at a time in texas when stuffing the ballot box was a common practice. it simply meant lbj stole better than his opponent. >> within that context of texas politics, that may not have been entirely a bad thing for johnson. he will do what it takes. he will play the game more ruthlessly than you will. >> lbj had been burnt in the 1941 senate race, which was stolen from him. by god, he wasn't going to let it happen again. >> when i first met president johnson in 1959, he was the majority leader in the senate.

i think at that time he was received or recognized as being the most knowledgeable, effective, impactful majority leader the senate had ever had. >> johnson was a man who was capable of making congress begin to function during those eisenhower years, i dare say congress would have been at a complete standstill if it hadn't been for johnson. >> i think it was pretty apparent in the 1950s that he was looking for a higher office. >> senator kennedy offered lbj the vice presidency because he believed that he more than anyone would be able, number one, carry texas and help him in the south and southwest. bobby kennedy came down to talk johnson out of accepting the

vice presidency. >> no question, bobby thought -- that he was the heir apparent. johnson said sex and jealousy get people to do more mean and nasty things than any two other factors. there was certainly jealousy there on bobby's part. >> the democratic party nominated senator john f. kennedy for president of the united states. and for vice president, senator lyndon b. johnson. the party united behind its candidates. >> i think had lyndon johnson not been on that ticket, jack kennedy would not have won that election. i just don't think it could have happened. >> as vice president, johnson is very much an outsider. not part of the camelot mystique at all. looked down on by the kennedy team. >> i would say that lyndon johnson was the most qualified vice president, certainly in modern times. >> the only man who was a member

of the house, a member of the senate, a minority leader, a majority leader, vice president. and a president of the united states. that is a wealth of experience. >> i wish i wasn't here. i don't know what i can do about it. all i want to do is be a good president and save my country. i've got ply ideas about what needs to be done. >> he wanted to be a great president and great presidents do big, bold tlings. he was unelected, but that moment came and he moved.

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helped him to find that af affirmation. >> one of the dominating ideas of his life was to help people. as president of the united states, he wanted to help them as only a president can help them by using the engine of government. >> this administration declares unconditional war on poverty in america. >> it's on one hand incredibly bold to declare war on anything, let alone poverty, which is a complicated, intractable kind of a problem that social scientists in 1964 don't really understand all that well. >> he saw how life could change on a dime. that was part of the motivation for creating safety nets for folks so they didn't see a precipitous fall in their lives. >> he said, we have this war against poverty. i would like to you consider running that for us.

i tell you the truth of the matter, i didn't think about it very much. >> good morning, mr. president. >> i want to announce your appointment. this afternoon. >> i think it would be advisable if you don't mind if i could have this weekend. i wanted to sit down with a couple people. >> it's leaked all over the papers that you are going do it. they will be shooting me with questions. i am going to make it clear you are mr. poverty. is that all right? >> our chief weapons in a more pinpointed attack will be better school and better health and better homes and better training and better job opportunities. all of these increased opportunities must be open to americans of every color. as far as federal law will run,

we must abolish not some but all racial discrimination. >> johnson was a new deal democrat. that doesn't mean he would be a supporter of civil rights. >> after lyndon johnson, the biggest faker in the united states, having opposed the civil rights act for all the years of his life, this is the phoniest individual that ever came around. >> his own legislator record on civil rights was horrible. from the day he got into congress until the late 1950s, he voted against everything. certainly, i sit here as an african american woman with grave discomfort to say the least about the legislation that he voted against. anti-lynching legislation. the things he voted against on his road to the presidency. >> he followed along after

people like richard russell who was one of his mentors. >> richard russell was a person of towering stature among segregationists in the south. >> he made me and i know it. i don't ever forget. nobody meant more to me than you, except my mother. >> lbj knew you couldn't exercise political power unless you had it. for lbj, growing up in texas, the only way he could get political power was to tow the line on segregation. >> great pride in the civil rights act, the first civil rights legislation since the war between the states was passed under his direction. >> when he served in the senate as majority leader, he was one of the architects of the 1957 civil rights bill. >> the '57 civil rights bill, i don't think it would have been brought up had it not been for lyndon johnson. he couldn't get 100% of what he

wanted was a part of congress at that time. >> i heard him at one end of the cloak room talking to sam. sam, why don't you let this nigger bill pass? that was not the language he would employ later on. at that time, he was in the trenches with guys who were determined not to let a bill pass. >> the civil rights bill of 1957 didn't do very much to secure african americans' rights. it did establish a u.s. civil rights commission that would study the problem and report on instances of discrimination. that was not insignificant. >> it was the first indicator that lyndon johnson was, as a legislative matter, changing his tune on civil rights. >> it is a moral issue and it must be met by the passage this session of the bill now pending

in the house. >> taking on civil rights in 1963, '64 was highly risky. we have to look at that period through the lens of the early '60s, not through the lens of 2021. quite frankly, in 2020 and 2021, we still see the fault lines in significant ways. but at that point, the south was a south of two different worlds. there were people who fought with every breath in their body to maintain those two societies. >> i draw the line in the dust and past the gauntlet and i say, segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever. >> the challenge in a democracy

is to find a way to gather a majority on the right side of history. almost always, the congress is on the wrong side of history. and we always felt that president johnson was determined to be on right side of history. >> it was said of lbj, he was a man who would not make waves unless he knew he owned the ocean. when lbj had the power, first as senate majority leader, then as president, he used that power to make a difference on civil rights. >> so he called the white house, the patriarch of the senate, his friend, his memberntor. johnson leaned to russell. he said, i love you and i owe you. but i'm going to tell you something. i'm going to run over you if you challenge me on this civil rights bill. russell listened. was quiet for a minute. then he said, you may just do

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i recall senator russell made a speech early in my

presidency. he said he knew i felt certain things deeply and he expected me to move in certain areas and when i moved i would move with all the power that i had and put all my chips in. that's what we did in the '64 act. >> if richard russell was upset with you he could cause a lot of problems. it was a huge risk to take. most of his allies don't want to legislation period, and he's taking a huge chance in alienating his supporters where it's not clear if he can capture the democratic nomination in november. >> do you anticipate a filibuster when the civil rights bill eventually reaches the senate? do you think in order to pass it in the senate, the bill will have to be substantially trimmed? >> no, i do not believe it would have to be substantially st

trimmed, and yes, i expect a filibuster. >> to break the filibuster, johnson has to vote to closer. >> that was the vote in the senate to stop debate and to stop the filibuster, so this required 67 senators and if those 67 votes were not produced, then legislation would die in the senate. >> he's got roughly 40 democrats he thinks will go for cloture. now, we have to have the republicans and you can't do anything with southern democrats, and nobody can get to russell -- >> we would say the same to the call to the republican as to a democrat under his belief that he needed all of the votes. >> he works with the minority leader from the republicans,

everett dirksen. >> he said you know that bill can't pass unless you get up to dirksen, you have to let him have a piece of the action. he has to look good all the time. >> don't you think that i am going to be pawning republicans around. >> lyndon johnson had the reputation of being a great manipulator. he could work his magic in the congress. >> if there was anything to know about a person, somehow or another lyndon johnson knew it. >> names of children, grandchildren, names of their wives and maybe miss ttresses. >> if you had a drink or had been out to a nightclub, he knew it. >> it was absolutely astounding to see it at work. >> they say i am an arm twister,

but i can't make a southerner change his spots any more than i can make a leopard change. >> he always said we may have lost their vote today. >> we don't want this to be a democratic bill, we want it to be an american bill. >> yes, sir, as i see it now, we have 68 votes. >> how many of those are democrat? >> 42. >> you think cloture is decided now, don't you? >> looks that way. it would be just a miracle getting this bill. who would have thought a year ago we would get this bill. >> do you believe it means the civil rights bill? >> we are not ready to surrender, and we feel this bill

is a perversion of the american way of life. >> my fellow americans, i am about to sign into law a civil rights act of 1964. >> only a southern president could have shepherd that bill, only the former master of the senate could shepherd that bill. >> i think it would have been easier for southerners to oppose a civil rights bill introduced by a northern liberal. >> the civil rights act is the big one, because kennedy had pursued it and not been able to break through that southern wall. johnson had a tremendous historical accomplishment and one that sets him apart as an effective president in his own right. >> what's the sense of being a political leader from the south and having political power if you don't use it? >> it's probably the most

important civil rights legislation passed since reconstruction. the civil rights act ended discrimination in public accommodations, and it mandated nondiscrimination in employment. it dramatically transformed life in the south. >> it was monumental. monumental. >> the airways were full of discussions about how unprecedented this was and historic, and yet he was depressed. i asked him why. i said, what's wrong? he said i think we just delivered the south to the republican party for the rest of my life and yours. >> lbj doubles down on the war

in vietnam. >> i abg ccept your nomination. >> something big is brewing. >> selma did everything to keep people from voting. >> so we had bloody sunday. >> people couldn't turn away anymore. the presidential car moving out. it appears as though something has happened in the motorcade -- >> lbj was intensely aware that he came into the office under the cloak of tragedy. >> he assumes office and the first thing he goes to get done is the civil rights act. >> in the south that's like throwing a match on gasoline. >> the airways were full of discussion