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"I'll have them ******* voting Democrat for the next 200 years" LBJ, Democrat civil rights heroThis sums it up-
LBJ reversed his position on race 180%, likely because he was a consumate politico who realized he was going to need the black vote, rather than any sense of brotherhood or equality. In Congress, LBJ repeatedly voted against legislation to protect black Americans from lynching. As a Senate leader he did his best to cripple the C.R.A. of 1957 managing to reduce it to an act of mere symbolism by taking out the enforcement provisions before sending it to Eisenhower. Dem colleague Strom Thurmond staged the longest filibuster in history up to that point, speaking for 24 hours in a failed attempt to block the bill..
Actually LBJ never reversed his opinion on race- once he was in the position to do something about Civil Rights he did.
LBJ not only voted for the 1957 Civil Rights Act- and helped push it through- he also voted for the 1960 Civil Rights Act- and then of course he did what Republicans hate him the most for.
He was responsible for the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The single most important Civil Rights legislature of the 20th century.
Proposed by JFK, and pushed through Congress by LBJ- despite opposition from the Dixiecrats.
And then of course LBJ followed that up with the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Republicans today cannot forgive him for that.