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Introduction President Lyndon B. Johnson expanded upon the New Deal, and constructed the Great Society, a series of domestic Legislative Programs to help the poor and downtrodden; these included Medicare and Medicaid, defense of Civil Rights, and Federal spending on education, the Arts, Urban and Rural development, Public Services, and a War on Poverty. Assisted in part by a growing economy, the War on Poverty helped millions of Americans rise above the poverty line during Johnson's Presidency. Civil Rights Legislation signed by Johnson banned Racial discrimination in voting, public facilities, housing, and the workplace. With the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the Country's Immigration System was reformed and all Racial origin quotas were removed (replaced by National origin quotas). His Presidency marked the high tide of modern liberalism in the United States. Though a product of the South and a protege of segregationist Senator Richard Russell, Jr., Johnson had long been personally sympathetic to the Civil Rights Movement, and felt that the time had come to pass the first major Civil Rights Bill since the Reconstruction Era. President Kennedy had submitted a Civil Rights Bill to Congress in June 1963, which was met with strong opposition. Kennedy's Bill had already been approved by the House Judiciary Committee, but still faced opposition in the House Rules Committee and the Senate. Johnson convinced Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield to put the House Bill directly into consideration by the full Senate, bypassing the Senate Judiciary Committee and its segregationist Chairman James Eastland. After months of debate, the Senate voted for closure in a 71-29 vote, narrowly clearing the 67-vote threshold then required to break filibusters. On June 19, the Senate voted to 73-27 in favor of the Bill, sending it to the President. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into Law on July 2. Legend has it that as he put down his pen Johnson told an aide, We have lost the South for a generation, anticipating a coming backlash from Southern Whites against Johnson's Democratic Party. It is true the South's Whites left the Democratic Party and joined the Republican Party that freed the Slaves and has remained in it to this day.

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9781981632206

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