Lyndon B. Johnson

===Voting Rights Act===
{{Main|Voting Rights Act of 1965}}

Johnson began his elected presidential term with similar motives as he had upon succeeding to the office, ready to "carry forward the plans and programs of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Not because of our sorrow or sympathy, but because they are right."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.upi.com/Archives/Audio/Events-of-1964/New-Moscow-Khrushchev-Fired/|title=1964 Year in Review – New Moscow: Khrushchev Fired|publisher=UPI|date=November 19, 1966}}</ref> He was reticent to push Southern congressmen further after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and suspected their support may have been temporarily tapped out. Nevertheless, the [[Selma to Montgomery marches]] in Alabama led by Martin Luther King ultimately led Johnson to initiate a debate on a voting rights bill in February 1965.<ref>{{harvnb|Dallek|1998|p=215}}</ref>

[[File:Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr. - Voting Rights Act.jpg|thumb|alt=refer to caption|President Lyndon B. Johnson, [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], and [[Rosa Parks]] at the signing of the [[Voting Rights Act]] on August 6, 1965]]

Johnson gave a congressional speech in which he said, <blockquote>rarely at any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself [...] rarely are we met with the challenge [...] to the values and the purposes and the meaning of our beloved nation. The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue. And should we defeat every enemy, should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation.<ref name="Dallek 1998, p.218">{{harvnb|Dallek|1998|p=218}}</ref></blockquote> In 1965, he achieved passage of a second civil rights bill called the [[Voting Rights Act]] which outlawed discrimination in voting, thus allowing millions of Southern blacks to vote for the first time. Under the act, several states—"eight of the eleven Southern states of the former confederacy" (Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia)—were subjected to the procedure of [[Voting Rights Act of 1965#Preclearance requirement|preclearance]] in 1965, while Texas, then home to the largest African American population of any state, followed in 1975.<ref name="Davidson, C. 1994 p. 3">Davidson, C. & Grofman, B. (1994). ''Quiet Revolution in the South: The Impact Of The Voting Right Act, 1965–1990''. p. 3, Princeton University Press.</ref> The Senate passed the voting rights bill by a vote of 77–19 after 2&nbsp;1/2&nbsp;months, and it won passage in the house in July, 333–85. The results were significant: between 1968 and 1980, the number of Southern black elected state and federal officeholders nearly doubled. The act also made a large difference in the numbers of black elected officials nationally; a few hundred black officeholders in 1965 mushroomed to 6,000 in 1989.<ref name="Dallek 1998, p.218"/>

After the murder of civil rights worker [[Viola Liuzzo]], Johnson went on television to announce the arrest of four [[Ku Klux Klan]]s men implicated in her death. He angrily denounced the Klan as a "hooded society of bigots," and warned them to "return to a decent society before it's too late". Johnson was the first President to arrest and prosecute members of the Klan since [[Ulysses S. Grant]].{{efn|President Grant, on October 17, 1871, suspended [[habeas corpus]] in nine [[South Carolina]] counties, sent in troops, and prosecuted the Klan in the federal district court.}}<ref>McFeely (2002), ''Grant: A Biography'', pp. 369–371.</ref> He turned to themes of Christian redemption to push for civil rights, mobilizing support from churches.<ref>{{harvnb|Woods|2006|pp=759–787}}</ref> At the [[Howard University]] commencement address on June 4, 1965, he said that both the government and the nation needed to help achieve these goals: "To shatter forever not only the barriers of law and public practice but the walls which bound the condition of many by the color of his skin. To dissolve, as best we can, the antique enmities of the heart which diminish the holder, divide the great democracy, and do wrong—great wrong—to the children of God ..."<ref>''Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965.'' Volume II, entry 301, pp. 635–640. (1966)</ref>

In 1967, [[Thurgood Marshall Supreme Court nomination|Johnson nominated]] civil rights attorney [[Thurgood Marshall]] to be the first African-American [[list of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States|justice]] of the Supreme Court. To head the new [[United States Department of Housing and Urban Development|Department of Housing and Urban Development]], Johnson appointed [[Robert C. Weaver]], the first African-American federal cabinet secretary. In 1968, Johnson signed the [[Civil Rights Act of 1968]], which provided for equal housing opportunities regardless of race, creed, or national origin. The impetus for the law's passage came from the 1966 [[Chicago Freedom Movement|Chicago Open Housing Movement]], the April 4, 1968, [[assassination of Martin Luther King&nbsp;Jr.]], and the [[King assassination riots|civil unrest]] across the country following King's death.<ref name=Kotz2005P417>{{cite book|last=Kotz|first=Nick|title=Judgment days : Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King,&nbsp;Jr., and the laws that changed America|year=2005|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|location=Boston|isbn=978-0-618-08825-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/judgmentdayslynd00kotz/page/417 417]|chapter=14. Another Martyr|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/judgmentdayslynd00kotz/page/417}}</ref> On April 5, Johnson wrote to the [[United States House of Representatives]] urging passage of the Fair Housing Act.<ref name=LBJ5April68>{{cite web|last=Johnson|first=Lyndon Baines|title=182 – Letter to the Speaker of the House Urging Enactment of the Fair Housing Bill|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=28785|publisher=American Presidency Project|access-date=July 19, 2012|date=April 5, 1968|quote=We should pass the Fair Housing law when the Congress convenes next week.|archive-date=March 15, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130315092613/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=28785|url-status=dead}}</ref> With newly urgent attention from legislative director [[Joseph Califano]] and [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] [[Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives|Speaker of the House]] [[John William McCormack|John McCormack]], the bill (which was previously stalled) passed the House by a wide margin on April 10.<ref name=Kotz2005P417/><ref name=Risen18Jul12>{{cite news|last=Risen |first=Clay |title=The Unmaking of the President: Lyndon Johnson believed that his withdrawal from the 1968 presidential campaign would free him to solidify his legacy |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/president-lbj.html?c=y&page=3 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130104181743/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/president-lbj.html?c=y&page=3 |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 4, 2013 |access-date=July 18, 2012 |newspaper=Smithsonian Magazine |pages=3, 5 and 6 in online version |date=April 2008 }}</ref>