Lyndon B. Johnson

==Early life==
[[File:Lyndon B. Johnson - 15-13-2 - ca. 1915.jpg|thumb|left|A seven-year-old Johnson, wearing his trademark cowboy hat, at his childhood farmhouse near [[Stonewall, Texas]], in 1915]]
Lyndon Baines Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, near [[Stonewall, Texas]], in a small farmhouse on the [[Pedernales River]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/lyjo/planyourvisit/upload/Locator2008-nobus.pdf |title=Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park: LBJ Ranch District |website=[[National Park Service]] |access-date=June 5, 2017}}</ref> He was the eldest of five children born to [[Samuel Ealy Johnson Jr.]] and Rebekah Baines.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fjo22|title=JOHNSON, REBEKAH BAINES |date=June 15, 2010 |website=[[Texas State Historical Association]] |access-date=June 5, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=A Family Album |last=Johnson |first=Rebekah Baines |publisher=McGraw Hill |year=1965 }}</ref> Johnson had one brother, [[Sam Houston Johnson]], and three sisters, Rebekah, Josefa, and Lucia.<ref>{{cite book |title=L. B. J., the man from Johnson City |last=Newlon |first=Clarke |publisher=Dodd, Mead |year=1970 |isbn=978-0-396-04983-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/lbjmanfromjohnso00newl/page/224 224] |url=https://archive.org/details/lbjmanfromjohnso00newl/page/224}}</ref> Johnson had English-Irish, German, and [[Ulster Scots people|Ulster Scots]] ancestry.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hoover.archives.gov/exhibits/cottages/middleclass/johnson.html |title=Lyndon B. Johnson |publisher=The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum |access-date=July 15, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113124726/http://hoover.archives.gov/exhibits/cottages/middleclass/johnson.html |archive-date=November 13, 2013}}</ref> Through his mother, he was a great-grandson of [[Baptists|Baptist]] clergyman [[George Washington Baines]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.baylor.edu/lib/index.php?id=78056 |title=George Washington Baines |website=[[Baylor University]] |access-date=June 5, 2017}}</ref>

Johnson's paternal grandfather, [[Samuel Ealy Johnson Sr.]], was raised Baptist and for a time was a member of the [[Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)]]. In his later years, Samuel Sr. became a [[Christadelphian]]; Samuel Jr. also joined the Christadelphian Church toward the end of his life.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/FAQs/Religion/religion_hm.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001205141900/http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/FAQs/Religion/religion_hm.asp |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 5, 2000 |title=Religion and President Johnson |publisher=[[Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum]] |access-date=December 4, 2013}}</ref> Johnson was influenced in his positive attitude toward Jews by the religious beliefs that [[Family of Lyndon B. Johnson|his family]], especially his grandfather, had shared with him.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Banta |first=Joseph |title=President Lyndon B. Johnson |journal=The Christadelphian |volume=101 |page=26 |date=January 1964}}</ref>

Johnson grew up poor, with his father losing a great deal of money.<ref name="povertyupbringing" /> Biographer [[Robert Caro]] described him as being raised "in a land without electricity, where the soil was so rocky that it was hard to earn a living from it."<ref name="povertyupbringing">{{cite news|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lbj-lyndon-johnson-and-his-monumental-presidency/|title=LBJ and his monumental presidency|first=Rita|last=Braver|publisher=CBS News|date=January 22, 2023|accessdate=January 22, 2023}}</ref>

In school, Johnson was a talkative youth who was elected president of his 11th-grade class. He graduated in 1924 from [[Johnson City High School]], where he participated in public speaking, debate, and baseball.<ref>{{cite book |title=Yearbook |editor-first=Patty |editor-last=Greenbaum |editor-first2=Lisa |editor-last2=Lewis |editor-first3=Anne |editor-last3=Drake |editor-first4=Zazel |editor-last4=Loven |year=1990 |publisher=Dolphin |location=New York, NY |isbn=978-0-385-41625-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/yearbook00newy/page/89 89] |url=https://archive.org/details/yearbook00newy/page/89}}</ref> At 15, Johnson was the youngest in his class. Pressured by his parents to attend college, he enrolled at a "sub college" of [[Southwest Texas State Teachers College]] (SWTSTC) in the summer of 1924, where students from unaccredited high schools could take the 12th-grade courses needed for admission to college. He left the school just weeks after his arrival and decided to move to [[southern California]]. He worked at his cousin's legal practice and in odd jobs before returning to Texas, where he worked as a day laborer.<ref>{{harvnb|Woods|2006|pp=44–48}}</ref>

In 1926, Johnson enrolled at SWTSTC. He worked his way through school, participated in debate and campus politics, and edited the school newspaper, [[University Star|''The College Star'']].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Student Editorials of Lyndon Baines Johnson |date=1968 |publisher=LBJ Common Experience, Paper 1 |url=http://ecommons.txstate.edu/lbjcomex/1 |access-date=October 12, 2014}}</ref> The college years refined his skills of persuasion and political organization. For nine months, from 1928 to 1929, Johnson paused his studies to teach Mexican–American children at the segregated Welhausen School in [[Cotulla, Texas|Cotulla]], {{convert|90|mi}} south of [[San Antonio]]. The job helped him to save money to complete his education, and he graduated in 1930 with a Bachelor of Science in history and his certificate of qualification as a high school teacher.<ref>{{cite book |last=Van Oudekerke |first=Rodney |date=2011 |title=Historic San Marcos: An Illustrated History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eYnh5lrGdQEC&pg=PA73 |location=San Antonio, TX |publisher=Historical Publishing Network |page=73 |isbn=978-1-9353-7740-5 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last=Fredericks |first=Janet Patricia |date=1982 |title=The Educational Views of Lyndon Baines Johnson Prior to His Presidency |type=PhD |chapter=I |publisher=Loyola University Chicago |chapter-url=https://ecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3053&context=luc_diss |page=6}}</ref> He briefly taught at Pearsall High School in [[Pearsall, Texas|Pearsall]] before taking a position teaching public speaking at [[Sam Houston High School (Houston, Texas)|Sam Houston High School]] in Houston.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/biographys.hom/lbj_bio.asp |title=President Lyndon B. Johnson's Biography |publisher=Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum |access-date=December 4, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118090054/http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/biographys.hom/lbj_bio.asp |archive-date=January 18, 2012}}</ref>

When he returned to San Marcos in 1965, after signing the [[Higher Education Act of 1965]], Johnson reminisced:

{{blockquote|I shall never forget the faces of the boys and the girls in that little Welhausen Mexican School, and I remember even yet the pain of realizing and knowing then that college was closed to practically every one of those children because they were too poor. And I think it was then that I made up my mind that this nation could never rest while the door to knowledge remained closed to any American.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/lbjforkids/edu_whca370-text.shtm |title=Remarks at Southwest Texas State College Upon Signing the Higher Education Act of 1965 |publisher=Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum |access-date=April 11, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070714005531/http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/lbjforkids/edu_whca370-text.shtm |archive-date=July 14, 2007}}</ref>}}