Lyndon B. Johnson | Britannica

Lyndon B. Johnson

Websites : White House biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library

Lyndon B. Johnson is a noted contributor to Encyclopaedia Britannica online. Read Britannica's biography of Lyndon B. Johnson

BIOGRAPHY

Lyndon B. Johnson served as 36th president of the United States (1963–69). A moderate Democrat and vigorous leader in the United States Senate, Johnson was elected vice president in 1960 and acceded to the presidency in 1963 upon the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. During his administration he signed into law the Civil Rights Act (1964), the most comprehensive civil rights legislation since the Reconstruction era, initiated major social service programs, and bore the brunt of national opposition to his vast expansion of American involvement in the Vietnam War.

photograph: Yoichi R. Okamoto, The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum/National Archives and Records Administration

Primary Contributions (1)

Sam Rayburn

Sam Rayburn was an American political leader, who served as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly 17 years. He was first elected to the House in 1912 and served there continuously for 48 years 8 months, which at the time of his death was a record tenure. He was elected to Congress…

Publications (1)

Taking Charge The Johnson White House Tapes 1963 1964 (September 1998)

By Michael R. Beschloss

TAKING CHARGE brings you into the room with a political legend, still hated and revered a quarter of a century after his death. The only President to record his private conversations from his first day in office, Lyndon Johnson ordered the tapes to be locked in a vault until at least the year 2023. But now they have been unsealed, providing a close up look at a President taking power such as we have never had before - from John F. Kennedy's murder in November 1963 to Johnson's campaign for a landslide...

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