History Has Its Eyes On You

                    History Has Its Eyes on You 

Lyndon Johnson was no saint. He spent much of his life on the other side of judgment. During his early years in Congress, he ruthlessly pursued power. If not for two defining moments, his legacy would have been that of a hard-hearted politician. One moment was when he suffered a massive heart attack (1955) which required a long recuperation. The other was when John F. Kennedy was assassinated and Johnson took his place as president to a grieving nation (1963).

During his long convalescence following his heart attack, Johnson had reevaluated his life. He meditated on the few years he had spent teaching in poor schools in the 1920s south. He had felt helpless in the face of the desperate poverty of his students. When Kennedy died, Johnson was presented with a unique opportunity to make big changes to American society. When thrust into the most powerful office in the land, he wanted to set right what he saw as wrong. 

The day after assuming power, Johnson was on the move. He told his aides, “I’m going to pass [JFK’s] civil rights bill and not change one word of it. I’m not going to cavil, and I’m not going to compromise. I’m going to fix it so that everyone can vote, so everyone can get all the education they can get.” Having started his career as an appeaser of segregationists, he wanted to end it as a champion of civil rights. “Now I can do what the whole country thinks is right. Or ought to.”

Johnson had much and many to overcome, not the least of which was the naked hatred now exposed as civil rights marchers were attacked and beaten. Johnson wrote, “hate produces poverty, … hate … produces injustice.… It’s a cancer that just eats our national existence.” 

George Wallace was one of the strongest voices for segregation. As Governor of Alabama, Wallace tacitly condoned the violence perpetrated against Civil Rights marchers. After images of police officers beating freedom marchers in Selma shocked the nation, Johnson summoned Wallace to his office to set the matter plainly before him: “‘Now listen, George, don’t think about 1968. Think about 1988. You and me, we’ll be dead and gone then, George…. What do you want left after you, when you die? Do you want a great big marble monument that reads, ‘George Wallace — He Built.’ Or do you want a little piece of scrawny pine board lying across that harsh caliche soil that reads, ‘George Wallace — He Hated.’” Under pressure from the president, Wallace agreed to maintain order during future marches.

Johnson fought for what he thought was right for America. As he was signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, he said, “It is difficult to fight for freedom. But I also know how difficult it can be to bend long years of habit and custom to grant it. There is no room for injustice anywhere in the American mansion.” 

We have yet to overcome hate in America. It continues to eat at our national existence. Will we fight for freedom or compromise with hatred? Will our legacy be one of justice or hate? On which side of judgment will we stand?

(Quotations from The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels by Jon Meacham, Random House 2018)