Presidential Quote:
“There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem.”
Lyndon B. Johnson
March 15, 1965
Presidential history is replete with nuanced irony. Sometimes presidents act for what they perceive to be right (morally, politically, even historically) using words of their times. Sometimes they even call for a leader to challenge their own personal or cultural bias. LBJ is a timely example – he “swore like a stable-boy” about Civil Rights – but took us one step closer to the equality of a “Great Society”. Only history (or heaven) may eventually tell us which of his “better angels” were speaking.
Now is a time in America for all of us to listen to our own angels as well…
Lyndon Baynes Johnson Presidential Library and Museum
The University of Texas
Austen, Texas
Photo credit: KPS