Lyndon B. Johnson DBQ

490 Words2 Pages

People who are desperate to become accepted by all the people in America, can do some pretty unpredictable things. Lyndon B. Johnson is an example of this. Before he became president, Johnson changed his mind about some things and signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Why did L.B.J. sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act for political reasons like, gaining the approval of the public, showing people that he has changed, and to please the people of America. In Doc B, you can easily see that L.B.J. gains approval from the people. In this document, it shows that most people approve of the way L.B.J. is handling this situation. There is also another chart that shows that most people think he is going …show more content…

Doc D has a note under the comic shown. In my opinion, this note says something very important that he did. L.B.J. made a provision saying that anyone that would break the laws in the Civil Rights Act, would get a jury trial. Since the people that would WANT to break these laws are the people from the south, they then would go to a trial with a potential all-white jury and most likely get away with what they did. This shows how Lyndon B. Johnson used the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for a political reason. There is even more evidence to be shown! Lastly, Doc E is an example of why Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In this document it shows a question that Roy Wilkins and many others had for him. “If you had felt this strongly about the issue, why had it taken you so long to act on it?” Wilkins asked. Why would Johnson wait so long before announcing his position on this very serious issue? It makes most sense that L.B.J. suddenly changed his mind, for political reasons. Lyndon B. Johnson definitely signed this act with political intentions. Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act for political reasons like, gaining the approval of the public, showing people that he has changed, and to please the people of