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>> we are in the private suite of lyndon johnson, this was the private quarters to the president and first lady. i say private, i do mean that is not part of the tour for the public, this has never been opened, you are seeing it because of c-span special access. vips come in here just as they did in his day but it's not open to visitors on a daily basis. the remarkable thing about this space, as a living and breathing artifact, it hasn't changed at all since president johnson died january 1973. it is a document at the corner of this room signed by, among others, the then archivist of the u.s. and lady bird johnson telling predecessors, myself and successors that nothing in this

room has changed so this is just as president johnson would have seen it in his day. as a number of luminaries in this room, seven presidents came through these rooms, 61st ladies, the queen of england, prince philip, prince charles, princess diana and it looks exactly as we see it now. as an interview lbj did with walter in the early 1970s in which lbj is sitting in that chair and walter is on that couch and you see exactly what you see right now. the president was alive for about a year end a half when this library, he was inaugurated in 1971 and he died in january 1973. very limited time during which he was part of the library but a

very important time. lady bird johnson continued to make an important part of her life until she died in 2007. this library is just as much about her touch as it is her husband. throughout the room, there are wonderful artifacts the johnsons collected while they were in the white house, some come from heads of state and others from friends of theirs who gave the johnsons gift for the presidential library for the white house that was brought to this space. one such item is painting by diego rivera, one of 15 paintings that diego rivera did during the course of his career, it was given resident johnson from the president of mexico during a state visit there during the course of johnson's

presidency. for some of the painting on the right, charles russell, a famous painter of western scenes. this was a painting that hung at the lbj ranch that johnson subsequently gave to their library. in this case, and between there are many gifts given to the johnsons by friends and in some cases including a wonderful solid gold representation where there's a diamond were a sea of tranquility was, of course where neil armstrong first landed on the moon. president johnson was very active in the space program and that mission occurred after he left the oval office, it was

very much part of his effort that we actually made it to the moon. this is a small private office set up for him and it was meant to model a private office, through that door which i will show you in a moment, our replica of the johnson oval office but this was a small study he used on occasion that includes a very long couch, very long because johnson often naps, it ended up being a horizontal working area but is long to accommodate his 6-foot three inch range. recently we had the civil rights summit here at the summit library, president carter took a nap on this as well so at least two former presidents have slept on the couch.

this is a small desk that president johnson used in the private office, he spent a great deal of time there when he worked as president so a lot of the work of his presidency was done on this desk. president johnson was a major consumer, he monitored it very carefully. those three television sets were set up he could see simultaneously all three major news broadcasts simultaneously. there's a patrol there that allows him to isolate sound on two of the set so he could hear the sound on one of them. this is a time where there were only three broadcast networks,

cbs, abc and nbc so it was far easier to monitor than it would be today. cbs was the fourth network introduced by an lyndon johnson, through legislation he signed in 1967 creating nodding only cbs but national public radio. i mentioned earlier that this suite has not changed since president johnson died in 1973 and the rug i will show you in the bathroom, you can see the neon green, anyone who's over 35 years old will recognize it was probably the same color, this is a very popular color of the time so you see we have not changed things. >> if we could, that's the one thing i want. i'd like to have finances and

architectural requirements, i don't say 18 feet high or 14, 30 feet long, it might have a little part of the door saying it's not exact production or something but i'd like for it to be such where they get an impression, they all want to see that, that's what they come to see. >> here we are in lbj oval office. most of the presidential libraries have oval office, this is distinct for two reasons. number one, is slightly smaller than the actual oval office, this is to scale. the reason is smaller is because it was added as an afterthought. president johnson wanted visitors to see where the president worked but we didn't

have a large enough space to accommodate the oval office source slightly smaller. another thing that makes it unique, this is the actual furniture in lyndon johnson's white house including his desk. this is not the resolute desk we associate with the president, desk that president obama currently use and many of us recognize the photo of john f. kennedy junior popping out of his father's desk. that desk is used by most presidents. johnson however, because he wanted to take his furniture back to his presidential library opted instead to use the desk he had as a study. he used this one, senate majority leader and then use it as vice president and took it over to the oval office. that is his chair, his telephone, this is his sweet of furniture including the rocking chair he sat in, we recognize it

as being similar to the rocking chairs john f. kennedy used when he was president, done by the same manufacturer. every president to choose the portrait he wants in his oval office. president johnson chose george washington, andrew jackson and his hero, franklin roosevelt, very much a product of the new deal and a protégé in many respects, he saw great potential in young lyndon johnson. when johnson became president, it was his hope he finished the new deal, finished with his great society what president roosevelt started with the new deal. one of the things fdr left unaddressed his presidency was

civil rights. ultimately president johnson will be remembered as civil rights president. it broke the back of jim crow sequels throughout the south. act of 1965 which gave all americans access to the ballot box in fair housing act of 1968 which allowed for housing for all americans. that's civil rights legislation and the principal legacy lyndon johnson. >> coming up today, president biden and south korea president held a news conference of the white house plus live coverage 5:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. online at c-span.org or listen live on the frequency span radial up. >> saturday on the communicators, we talk about cancel culture medications.

>> my concern here is that there is too much that we should all agree with in legitimate public debate that is canceled. >> cancel culture is an expensive term used extensively in a bunch of range of concerns but i typically narrow it to questions of, what randy said, shame, ostracism and probably more specifically, i'm concerned about those areas where people are fired for their positions. >> watch the communicators with telecommunications analyst may and will reinhardt saturday 6:30 p.m. eastern on c-span. ♪♪ ♪♪