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Did Lyndon B Johnson Sign The Civil Rights Act Of 1964 Based On Principle

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Lyndon B Johnson was the president who signed the civil rights act of 1964, a landmark piece of legislature ensuring equal rights, yet some controversy remains about the reasons for why he signed it. LBJ was born in Stonewall Texas, August 27, 1908 and raised in a local political family. By the time he was an adult he was working as a teacher in a segregated school, teaching kids considered non-white, then as a senator, and finally LBJ became the 36th President of the United States of America. The question is, did Lyndon B. Johnson sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964 based on Principle, or Politics. Doing something for politics means to do it for personal benefit. on the other hand doing something for principle means to do it is the ethical or correct thing to do. There are three good examples showing that Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because of principle. These examples are his personal experience, witness to the injustices, and his freedom from political bonds. The first example of being driven by principle was, Johnson's upbringing in Texas exposed him to the harsh …show more content…

Johnson's strong determination to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by principle was because of his personal observation of the unfairness and discrimination he saw in the southern United States. LBJ was witness to injustices as a teacher in his early to middle life because he had a clear comparison, the all white school and the Mexican-American school where he taught at.Being able to compare them side by side so clearly, it was obvious that the all white school was able to get new supplies for its students while the other was only able to scavenge for second hand materials This example shows principle was more important to Lyndon B. Johnson because such a blatant inequality would have affected LBJ and he would have wanted to address the systemic issues in his American society. It also probably strengthened his moral compass to fight for civil

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