Copyright 2000 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
The Houston Chronicle
July 26, 2000, Wednesday 3 STAR EDITION
SECTION: A; Pg. 12
LENGTH:
487 words
HEADLINE: Photos of LBJ added to Capitol
collection of notable Democrats
SOURCE: Staff
BYLINE: LETITIA STEIN, Houston Chronicle Washington
Bureau
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
WASHINGTON - It took a Texan to notice the
missing photo.
Photographs of Democratic presidents John F. Kennedy,
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman have long been displayed in the
"Democratic" room at the Capitol. But members of the Texas delegation wondered
why their own Lyndon B. Johnson was not among such "great society."
Rep.
Gene Green, D-Houston, decided the absence of his home-state hero in a room
where Democrats still work on issues Johnson championed, such as education and
Medicare, needed to be corrected. So Green contacted the Lyndon Baines Johnson
Library and Museum in Austin about securing a shot of LBJ for the Democratic
room on Capitol Hill.
Those photos were unveiled Tuesday at a ceremony
honoring Johnson's legacy.
"It's hard to see how anyone has ever had a
greater impact on Americans' everyday lives over the past 50 years than that
Texas giant, Lyndon B. Johnson," Green said.
The photographs show the
late president signing into law three of the legislative accomplishments of his
presidential tenure: the Medicare bill in 1965, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965.
On
the 35th anniversary of the Medicare Act, Democratic legislators noted that they
are still working today to advance the causes Johnson embraced with his vision
for making America a "Great Society."
"Those issues were good then, and
they are good now," said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., who presided over the House
during the historic vote to pass the original Medicare bill.
Born in
1908 near Johnson City in central Texas, Johnson witnessed the plight of the
rural poor firsthand during his childhood. He came to Congress in 1937 pledging
to further a New Deal platform. After representing Texas in the House and
Senate, he became vice president under the Kennedy administration.
Johnson was sworn in as the nation's 36th president Nov. 22, 1963 after
President Kennedy was assassinated. He was elected to the position in 1964.
As president, Johnson championed his Great Society programs for better
education, urban renewal and an end to poverty. Johnson signed into law the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and in 1965 the Voting Rights Act. He appointed the
first black justice to the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall, in 1967.
Yet Johnson's domestic agenda was at times overshadowed by a growing
protest movement over the presence of U.S. troops in Vietnam.
Johnson
died of a heart attack at home in Texas in 1973.
"President Johnson was
a visionary, a man who saw how government could work to help not only Americans
in his generation but future generations as well," said House Minority Whip
David Bonior, D-Mich. "He dreamed that ours could become a truly great society,
a nation that left no one behind."
Texas Reps. Martin Frost, D-Dallas;
Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston; and Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, also attended the
event to honor Johnson.
GRAPHIC: Photo: Lyndon B.
Johnson envisioned making America a "Great Society" when he was president.;
Associated Press
LOAD-DATE: November 21, 2000
