Lyndon B. Johnson Quotes
Nigger, nigger, nigger. If I don't achieve anything else while I am President, I intend to wipe that word out of the English language.
Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1908-1973, 36th President of the United States (Democrat, TX), Remark to Joseph Califano, 1966
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
President Johnson said this after a meeting with governors from the South and border states, who had criticized his policies on civil rights as well as his vocal support of expanded rights for blacks
This was actually a very courageous statement for an American politician running for national office. As a result of the pressure of this statement President Franklin Roosevelt allowed Black enlistment in the Army Air Forces.
This is a terrific statement of Americanism at any time, but it is particularly notable in 1888. At that time anti-Catholicism and anti-Semitism were both heavy throughout the country. Jim Crowe and racism was rampant, Orientals were heavily discriminated against especially on the West Coast. Irish and Italians were not wanted in most of America except as manual laborers.
This was a very courageous speech for the President to give. Senator Hubert Humphrey had proposed civil rights legislation. At the time most of the racial conservative members of Congress were Democrats and not Republicans as they would become after Civil Rights legislation actually passed in 1964. There was little possibility that the civil rights law would pass as the Southern Democrats could filibuster it in the Senate. None the less Truman supported the legislation and the principle of equal rights despite the fact that he was a Southerner and he knew he would lose the support of the conservative wing of his party.
Having endured centuries of near slavery and discrimination, 70,000 Irish people signed this petition urging American-Irish immigrants to understand the similar plight of African-Americans and to join together with abolitionists. Irish immigrants were nevertheless reluctant to join the abolition movement because the movement was often tied to anti-Catholicism and many feared that the emancipation of Blacks would increase competition for the low-paying jobs immigrants held.
Lyndon Baines Johnson, often referred to by his initials LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, in office from 1963 to 1969. He served as the 37th vice president from 1961 to 1963 and assumed the presidency following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A Democrat from Texas, Johnson was also a United States representative and later majority leader in the United States Senate. Johnson is one of only four people to have served, at various times, in all four federal elected positions.
