by: Tolbert Yarkpawolo
Lyndon B. Johnson & Martin L. King
Luci Baines Johnson is the younger daughter of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th president of the United States. She is chairman of LBJ Asset Management Partners, Inc. and vice president of BusinessSuites, a nationwide office business service center. She also serves as a trustee of Boston University. She has four grown children, Lyndon, Nicole, Rebekah and Claudia, one stepson, Stuart, and eleven grandchildren.
In her article, Ms. Johnson stated “My father’s dream was to open the doors of opportunity to all Americans regardless of the color of their skin or the quantity of their pocketbook.”
She further added “On November 4, Barack Obama made good on those dreams. He walked through the doors of opportunity — flung open by Lyndon Baines Johnson, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the millions of men and women who supported the Great Society — and succeeded because of the "content of his character, not the color of his skin."
Ms. Johnson when on by adding “When Daddy signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act into law, he said he feared he was handing his beloved South over to the Republican Party for a generation, but if that was the price he had to pay for social justice he gladly did it. Sadly it’s been more than a generation since he said those prophetic words,” “I never got the chance to vote for my father. But when I cast my vote for Barack Obama, I was casting a vote to support the same causes of social justice and equal opportunity to quality education, decent health care and a clean environment for all Americans that Daddy and the supporters of the "Great Society" worked so hard on and achieved so much for.”
Ms. Johnson as she cast her vote, she could hear her Daddy’s words to the Congress about the Voting Rights Act, recalled in his memoir "The Vantage Point," ringing in her ear.
"Their cause must be our cause too. Because it is not just Negroes, but it is really all of us who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice, and we shall overcome."
With or without LBJ or King would you agree that an African-American would have eventually become president of the US. Would you also agree that it was just a matter of time. Could we argue that the Black Panthers, Malcolm X, Nat Turner or many other Black freedom fighters equally contributed to the current state of African-American in the United States.
Just in case you are not aware, Nat Turner started a freedom campaign from his oppressors. The so-called rebellion as the text calls it took place in Southampton County, Virginia during August 1831. Slaves in the so-called rebellion killed approximately 60 white suppressors and slave owners before the freedom fighters were put down a few days later, The leader, Nat Turner remained in hiding for several months and was found and killed. In the aftermath, both participants and non-participants were punished. New laws across the South blocked literacy for free blacks and mulattoes, as well as slaves.
Sound-off: With or without LBJ or Dr. King would you agree that an African-American would have eventually become president of the US?
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Eventually, America would’ve had an African American President since the Civil Rights Movement was already in motion with people like A. Phillip Randolph, Paul Robeson, Rev. Vernon Johns and many, many others but Dr. King came along and expedited the Movement and brought national attention to the plight of African Americans in the U.S. and President Lyndon B. Johnson brought the force of law behind the Movement so together they set the stage for an eventual African American President but not on their own. I’m surprised it took this long for it to happen but I expect to see the Presidency to look more representative of America’s actual population. I look forward to seeing other Black Presidents, Latino Presidents, Women and Asian American Presidents. Much as LBJ and MLK expanded Civil Rights to include not just Blacks but women and other minorities. Perhaps in my mind the biggest role that these two figures played is expanding Civil Rights in America to enfranchise all Americans.