[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 39 (Wednesday, March 7, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H2271-H2272]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 TRIBUTE TO LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON, 36TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, as a proud Texan, I rise today 
to pay tribute to Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th President of the 
United States and the greatest ``Education President'' in the history 
of our Nation.
  It is no exaggeration to say, Mr. Speaker, that Lyndon Baines 
Johnson's record of extending the benefits of education to all 
Americans in every region of the country, of every race and gender, 
irrespective of economic class or family background, remains 
unsurpassed. Lyndon Johnson recognized that the educated citizenry is a 
nation's greatest economic asset and most powerful guardian of its 
political liberties.
  Mr. Speaker, Lyndon Johnson did more than any single American, living 
or dead, to make the federal government a partner with states and 
localities in the vitally important work of educating the people of 
America, from pre-kindergarten to post-graduate school. It makes 
perfect sense, therefore, to name the headquarters building of the U.S. 
Department of Education in his honor.
  Mr. Speaker, Lyndon Baines Johnson was one of the leading figures of 
the 20th century. This teacher who became a president served his 
country in numerous, distinguished ways, including as Lt. Commander in 
the U.S. Navy during World War II, as a Member of both houses of 
Congress, as Vice President of the United States, and as the 36th 
President of the United States.
  Lyndon Baines Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, in Stonewall, 
Texas. In 1927, he enrolled in Southwest Texas State Teachers College 
at San Marcos, Texas (Texas State University-San Marcos). He took a 
leave of absence for a year to serve as principal and teach fifth, 
sixth, and seventh grades at Welhausen School, a Mexican-American 
school in the South Texas town of Cotulla. He graduated with a Bachelor 
of Science degree in August 1930. After graduation he taught at 
Pearsall High School in Pearsall, Texas, and taught public speaking at 
Sam Houston High School in Houston, Texas. In the spring of 1931, his 
debate team won the district championship.
  In a special election in 1937, Johnson won the U.S. House of 
Representatives seat representing the 10th Congressional District of 
Texas, defeating nine other candidates. He was re-elected to a full 
term in the 76th Congress and to each succeeding Congress until 1948.
  After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Johnson became 
the first Member of Congress to volunteer for active duty in the armed 
forces (U.S. Navy), reporting for active duty on December 9, 1941. 
Johnson received the Silver Star from Gen. Douglas MacArthur for 
gallantry in action during an aerial combat mission over hostile 
positions in New Guinea on June 9, 1942. President Roosevelt ordered 
all Members of Congress in the armed forces to return to their offices, 
and Johnson was released from active duty on July 16, 1942.
  In 1948, after a campaign in which he traveled by ``newfangled'' 
helicopter all over the state, Johnson won the primary by 87 votes and 
earned the nickname ``Landslide Lyndon'', and in the general election 
was elected to the U.S. Senate. He was elected Minority Leader of the 
Senate in 1953 and Majority Leader in 1955. He served in the U.S. 
Senate until he resigned to become Vice President in January 1961.
  Lyndon Johnson became the 36th President of the United States on 
November 22, 1963, after the assassination of President John F. 
Kennedy.
  During his administration, education was one of the many areas where 
President Johnson blazed new ground. He pursued numerous education 
initiatives, and signed many landmark education bills into law.
  In 1963, President Johnson approved the Higher Education Facilities 
Act (P.L. 88-204) which authorized a five-year program of federal 
grants and loans for construction or improvement of public and private 
higher education academic facilities. This legislation was the largest 
education program enacted by

[[Page H2272]]

Congress since the National Defense Education Act of 1958, and it was 
the first broad education bill enacted in the post-World War II period 
that was not tied to national defense.
  In 1964, Johnson signed the Library Services Act (P.L. 88-269) to 
make high quality public libraries more accessible to both urban and 
rural residents. The funds made available under this Act were used to 
construct as well as operate libraries, and to extend this program to 
cities as well as rural areas. Later that year, President Johnson 
signed the Civil Rights Act (P.L. 88-352), which among its landmark 
provisions authorized federal authorities to sue for the desegregation 
of schools and to withhold federal funds from education institutions 
that practiced segregation.
  In 1965, President Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary 
Education Act (P.L. 89-10) at the former Junction Elementary School in 
Stonewall, Texas, where he first attended school. Sitting beside him as 
he signed the bill was his first teacher, Mrs. Kathryn Deadrich Loney. 
This legislation was the first general aid-to-education program ever 
adopted by Congress, and it provided programs to help educate 
disadvantaged children in urban and rural areas. Later that year, he 
also signed the Higher Education Act (P.L. 89-329), which was the first 
program approved by the U.S. Congress for scholarships to undergraduate 
students.

  In 1965, President Johnson launched Project Head Start, as an eight-
week summer program, to help break the cycle of poverty by providing 
pre-school children from low-income families with a comprehensive 
program to meet their emotional, social, health, nutritional, and 
psychological needs. Recruiting children from ages three to school-
entry age, Head Start was enthusiastically received by education and 
child development specialists, community leaders, and parents across 
the nation. Currently, Head Start continues to serve children and their 
families each year in urban and rural areas in all 50 States, the 
District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Territories, as well as 
many migrant children.
  In 1966, President Johnson signed the International Education Act 
(P.L. 89-698), which promoted international studies at U.S. colleges 
and universities.
  In 1968, he signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act 
Amendments of 1967 (P.L. 90-247), establishing bilingual education 
programs for non-English speaking children, and providing more funds 
for special education for disabled children. Later that year, he also 
signed the Handicapped Children's Early Education Assistance Act (P.L. 
90-538), which authorized experimental programs for disabled children 
of pre-school age.
  After leaving office, Lyndon Johnson returned to his native Texas and 
continued his involvement in public education. His presidential papers 
are housed at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum at the 
University of Texas, which in 1970 established the Lyndon Baines 
Johnson School of Public Affairs, The ``LBJ School,'' as is commonly 
known, pioneered what was then regarded as a novel approach to training 
for public service.
  The curriculum combined courses in theory with courses that took 
students into government agencies to work and conduct research; the 
faculty included academics from various disciplines as well as 
practitioners from various levels of government; public service 
programs included an academic publishing program as well as workshops 
for government officials. This blend of the academic and the practical 
remains the distinguishing characteristic of the LBJ School and this 
highly effective approach to training for public service is today an 
accepted model for public affairs graduate programs across the country.
  Mr. Speaker, Lyndon Baines Johnson, who died January 22, 1973, will 
be remembered not only as a great President and Member of Congress, but 
also as the greatest champion of accessible and affordable quality 
education for all. President Johnson truly understood the importance of 
leaving no child behind, and he didn't.
  For all these reasons, Mr. Speaker, it is most appropriate that the 
House voted to rename the headquarters building of the Department of 
Education located at 400 Maryland Avenue Southwest in the District of 
Columbia as the ``Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education 
Building.''
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, I pay tribute to President Johnson's leadership 
in the area of civil rights. In response to the civil rights movement, 
Johnson overcame southern resistance and achieved passage of the Civil 
Rights Act of 1964, which effectively outlawed most forms of racial 
segregation. As he put down his pen, Johnson is alleged to have told an 
aide: ``We have lost the South for a generation.'' In 1965, he achieved 
passage of a second civil rights bill, the Voting Rights Act, that 
outlawed discrimination in voting, thus allowing millions of southern 
blacks to vote for the first time.
  In other actions on the civil rights front, Johnson nominated civil 
rights attorney Thurgood Marshall 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. After the murder of civil 
rights worker Viola Liuzzo, Johnson went on television to announce the 
arrest of four Ku Klux Klansmen implicated in her death. He angrily 
denounced the Klan as a ``hooded society of bigots,'' and warned them 
to ``return to a decent society before it's too late.'' He turned the 
themes of Christian redemption to push for civil rights, thereby 
mobilizing support from churches North and South.
  On June 4, 1965 at the Howard University commencement address, he 
said that both the government and the nation needed to help achieve 
goals: . . . To shatter forever not only the barriers of law and public 
practice, but the walls which bound the condition of many by the color 
of his skin. To dissolve, as best we can, the antique enmities of the 
heart which diminish the holder, divide the great democracy, and do 
wrong--great wrong--to the children of God.
  Lyndon Baines Johnson was a giant of a man and a towering figure in 
the history and life of our nation. We are not going to see his like 
again.

                          ____________________