In his first year, Johnson faced conflicts with everyone from Senators to speechwriters who wanted to honor Kennedy's legacy, but were reluctant to support new propositions by Johnson. Johnson used his famous charm and strong-arm tactics to push through his new policies. In 1964, upon Johnson's request,
Congress passed a tax-reduction law and the Economic Opportunity Act, which was in association with the War on Poverty. Johnson also hired
Jerri Whittington, the first African-American White House secretary, and appointed
Jack Valenti as his "special assistant."
.....
The
Great Society program became Johnson's agenda for Congress in January 1965:
aid to education, attack on disease, Medicare, urban renewal, beautification, conservation, development of depressed regions, a wide-scale fight against poverty, control and prevention of crime, and removal of obstacles to the right to vote. Congress, at times augmenting or amending, rapidly enacted Johnson's recommendations.
Millions of elderly people found succor through the 1965 Medicare amendment to the Social Security Act.
Under Johnson, the country made spectacular explorations of space in a program he had championed since its start. When three astronauts successfully orbited the moon in December 1968, Johnson congratulated them: "You've taken
all of us, all over the world, into a new era
."
Nevertheless, two overriding crises had been gaining momentum since 1965.
Despite the beginning of new anti-poverty and anti-discrimination programs, unrest and rioting in black ghettos troubled the nation. President Johnson steadily exerted his influence against segregation and on behalf of law and order, but there was no early solution. Several changes were made during the Johnson administration to relieve the hostile political atmosphere. In response to the civil rights movement, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which effectively outlawed most forms of racial segregation, and the
Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, which dramatically changed US immigration policy. He also nominated former civil rights attorney
Thurgood Marshall, who had argued and won the landmark
Supreme Court case
Brown v. Board of Education, to the positions of
Solicitor General and later
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, making him the first African-American to serve in either capacity.
The other crisis arose from
Vietnam. Despite Johnson's efforts to end
Communist insurgency and achieve a settlement, fighting continued. Controversy over the war had become acute by the end of March
1968, when he limited the bombing of
North Vietnam in order to begin negotiations.
In a surprising move, Johnson withdrew as a candidate for re-election (which candidacy was being seriously challenged by other Democrats). He said he was withdrawing so he could devote his full efforts, unimpeded by politics, to the quest for peace.
