Lyndon B. Johnson Deserves A Spot On The Money

Few presidents have had the sort of impact that Lyndon Baines Johnson, or LBJ, had on the course of the United States. A former teacher and a powerful Representative and Senator, he developed a tough, straightforward personality that he weilded to achieve his ends. He was elevated to the presidency upon the death of the charismatic and young president John F. Kennedy, but Johnson's congressional resume served him well as he completed JFK's legacy better than anyone could have.

At the time of his death, Kennedy was actively working with his brother, U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, to achieve the passage of civil rights legislation. With the work of activists like Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and Malcolm X, the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 1965, and 1968 banned discrimination in housing, education, public services, voting, and other important freedoms Americans cherish. He appointed Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court, making him the first black justice.

He also worked to oppose discrimination against immigrants (when he signed an act eliminating nationality quotas for immigrants), Native Americans (when the Civil Rights Act of 1968 applied the Bill of Rights to tribes), older Americans in the workplace, and the disabled (when he signed an act requiring public buildings to be accessible to people with disabilities).

Johnson also helped fulfill Kennedy's wish of winning the Space Race. He oversaw the first 8 Apollo missions and other revolutionary space technology developments, and the famed Apollo 11 mission was just 6 months after Johnson left office.

As a teacher, Johnson sought to increase access to and quality of education. Acts throughout his term included funding for educational facilities, technical education, financial assistance for higher education, new standards for teachers, and work for bilingual students.

The environmental movement gained its initial traction during the 1960s, and the Clean Air Act as well as the Wilderness Act, which protects 5% of the land area of the U.S. from development and is regarded as a landmark piece of legislation in the movement, were both signed in his first year in office. Among the first animal welfare laws, regulating labs, shelters, and circuses, was also passed.

The Nurse Training Act created new training for medical professionals, and in 1968 the FCC made 9-1-1 the emergency number. In the wake of the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., the first gun control legislation was passed.

Johnson's "Great Society" was his most impactful vision. He created food stamps, Head Start, work study, Medicare, and Medicaid; increased funding for public transit; provided services to the aging; made VISTA and the Job Corps; cut taxes; and reduced the minting of silver to prevent a shortage. In his six years in the White House, poverty in America was cut in half.

He died in 1973, just 4 years after he left office, but the effects of his legacy are still felt daily more than 50 years later.