Lyndon Johnson's Major Accomplishments On The Domestic Front

Lyndon Johnson’s major accomplishments were on the domestic front. In 1964, he signed into the law the Civil Rights Act, followed by the passage of the Voting Rights. And in 1965, the Congress enacted Medicare and Medicaid.
Lyndon Johnson was an improbable champion of African-American civil rights. For most of his congressional career, he voted squarely with Southern politicians against any civil right legislation. He did not shy away from a racial slur. He gradually changed his opinion and as a Vice president in his Gettysburg speech he unequivocally declared that ”Until justice is blind to color, until all education is unaware of race until opportunity is unconcerned with the men’s skin, emancipation will be a proclamation but emancipation will not be a fact.” Under his leadership, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion or nation origin, became the law of the land.

He cajoled, used threats and bargain with the reluctant lawmakers. He took advantage of public sentiment after Kennedy’s assassination to win the needed support. Another of his landmark legislations was Medicare and Medicaid. Johnson considered himself a New Deal Democrat. He believed that the role of government lies in providing social safeguards for the citizens. And just like his Democratic predecessors, President Johnson advocated for government backed health care plan for elderly and poor. His landslide victory in 1964 and his party control of the both houses of the US Congress empowered him to push through with health care plan. And he prevailed where Presidents Harry Truman and