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Sometimes we find ourselves in new intimidating situations. [Woman holding onto monkey bars]

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Like the first time we tried the monkey bars, well to this day nothing has been [Woman falls from the bars]

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more terrifying. The same thing happened to Lyndon B Johnson, not the monkey bar

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related terror just the new intimidating situation thing. When JFK [LBJ climbing on monkey bars]

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died LBJ took the oath of office on board the flight that was carrying

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Kennedy's body back to DC gotta be nerve wracking when the weight of the

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world falls on you, stress eating was undoubtedly involved. In his first [LBJ eating with crumbs everywhere]

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address to Congress LBJ declared that there'd be no greater memorial to JFK

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than to pass the civil rights act that the late president introduced to

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Congress. Of course there were still plenty of resistance but LBJ and his

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allies rammed the bill through Congress. LBJ oversaw the passage of America's [LBJ puts on a football helmet]

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most comprehensive civil rights act to date and sure there had been ones before

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but they were like fat-free sour cream. The look and texture were there but [Woman looks suspiciously at a spoon of sour cream]

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when it came down to it it just didn't do the trick. LBJ's commitment to

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civil rights didn't stop there, he pushed Congress to pass the twenty fourth

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amendment which nixed the poll taxes that kept many poor blacks from voting.

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Not only that LBJ put his John Hancock on the 1965 Voting Rights Act. [LBJ signing the act]

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This prohibited the use of literacy tests gave the federal government the power to

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register voters and forbade changes to voting procedures without explicit

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federal approval. Well LBJ was basically telling his fellow southerners that

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their time was up on finding sneaky ways to keep African-Americans from voting. [LBJ shaking his head]

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He was like all right y'all time to knock it off. Well LBJ who was known for his

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potty mouth probably would have substituted a more colorful phrase

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there but keeping it family-friendly here at Shmoop. By 1966 the number of [A toilet covers LBJ's mouth]

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African-Americans who had registered to vote had nearly quadrupled in South [Queue of people at a polling station]

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Carolina and Alabama and increased eightfold in Mississippi. All the Jim

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Crow loopholes that had been keeping black Americans from voting were

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steadily being closed and segregationists in the South were gradually losing every

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inch of ground. In the tug-of-war for civil rights they were steadily being

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dragged into the pit of mud, which hey how nice that their outsides matched their [People playing tug-of-war fall over into mud]

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insides for once, and on top of making civil rights of priority president

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Johnson also proposed a big whopping plan to help the nation's least [LBJ giving a speech on TV]

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advantaged citizens. His great society program provided funding for public

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education, work training programs, college loans, rent supplements for

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low-income families and medical care and food for the poor and elderly. It was

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kind of like FDR's new deal all over again, in many ways Johnson's Great

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Society was you know great. It succeeded in slightly narrowing the enormous [LBJ asleep in a bed]

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historical divided between the whites and blacks and education employment and [LBJ dreaming of an inclusive society]

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income. But like the New Deal Johnson civil rights and Great Society

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legislation had some issues, there were still plenty of racial conflict and the

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gap between black and white households was still wide. Plus much of white [Woman looks angry]

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middle-class America thought Johnson's Great Society had sucked up tax money like a [Money flying away from people]

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giant useless vacuum cleaner. Well rioting in dozens of cities only made [LBJ vacuuming the dollar bills up]

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whites more cynical. Johnson's ambitious plans were also a lot harder to achieve

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because of the terrible ceaseless war that was just starting in Vietnam.

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Before the end of his administration Johnson decided he couldn't pursue both a war [Footage of Vietnam war]

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against the Viet Cong and a war against poverty and injustice in America.

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In March 1968 he stunned the nation by announcing that he would not seek

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re-election he would leave office with a war still unresolved and his country [Newspaper headlines about LBJ leaving]

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still in crisis. For this reason his legacy is a man committed to freedom

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from want would be scarred, but hey don't worry LBJ some scars make you look cool.

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Like this awesome one we got from the monkey bars... [Woman shows a scar on her arm]

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