Presidents

## Dwight D. Eisenhower

Born in Denison, Texas on October 14, 1890, Eisenhower grew up in Abilene, Kansas, as the third of seven sons in a poor family. As a moderate Republican, Eisenhower was able to achieve numerous legislative victories despite a Democratic majority in Congress during six of his eight years in office (Eisenhower was president from 1953 to 1961.

When he was president he strengthened the Social Security programme, increased the minimum wage and created the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. In 1956 he created the Interstate HIghway System; the single largest public works programme in U.S. history.

Eisenhower was very hesitant in the realm of **civil rights** for African Americans.In 1954, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the Supreme Court had ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional. Eisenhower believed that desegregation should proceed slowly, and was reluctant to use his presidential authority to back up the enforecement of the Court's verdict, though he did send federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 to enforce integration of the Little Rock High School. Eisenhower did sign civil rights legislation in 1957 and 1960 providing federal protection for black voters; it was the first such legislation passed in the U.S. since the Reconstruction.

**The Civil Rights Act of 1957** was introduced in Eisenhower's presidency and was the act that kick-started the civil rights legislative programme that was to include the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Eisenhower, as mentioned earlier, had not been known for his support of the civil rights movement. Rather than lead the country on the issue, he responded to problems such as in Little Rock. He never publicly gave support to the civil rights movement, believing that you could not force people to change their beliefs; such changes had to come from the heart of the people involved, not as the result of legislation from Washington.

## John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy was born in Massachusetts in 1917 to one of the wealthiest families in the U.S. He enteres politics in 1946 and was elected to Congress in 1952. He won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960 and was in office as president until his death in 1963.

Kennedy was slow to commit himself to the civil rights cause, but was forced into action during the desegregation of the University of Mississippi. He endorsed the massive March on Washington, which involved Martin Luther King's famous "I Have A Dream" speech.

In February 1963, Kennedy sends a Special Message to Congress on civil rights asking it to enact legislation providing fo rlimited civil rights measures. By June nothing had happened. On June 11 1963 Kennedy promises to ask the Congress the following week to act and to "make a commitment it has not fully made in this century to the propostition that race has no place in American life or law." Before he could fulfill his goal and intention to create a civil rights bill, he was assassinated in November that same year.

## Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson was born in 1908 in Texas, Johnson's political career began in 1937, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Quickly earning respect as a smart and hardworking legislator, he was re-elected five times. In 1948 Johnson was elected to the U.S. Senate. Once he reached the Senate, Johnson showed a deft political touch. In 1953, at age 44, he became the youngest person ever to serve as a minority leader to the Senate. Two years later, when Democrats won control of Congress, Johnson became the Senate majority leader. His ability to work productively with Republican President Eisenhower and unite his party behind important legislation made him a powerful figure in Washington.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy, the Democratic presidential nominee, invited Johnson to be hus vice presidential running mate. Johnson's presence on the ticket attracted support of conservative Southern Democrats and helped lift Kennedy to a narrow victory over Republican candidate Richard Nixon.

On November 22, 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Texas, Johnson was sworn in as president later that day aboard Air Force One, and immediately reassured a shocked and grieving nation that he would make Kennedy's progressive vision for America a reality. He declared a "war on poverty" and pushed Congress to pass legislation attacking illiteracy, unemployment and discrimination.

After routing Republican candidate Barry Goldwater by more than 15 million votes in the 1964 presidential election, Johnson introduced s slate of new reforms that he said would build a "Great Society" for all Americans. His ambitious legislative agenda created the Medicare and Medicaid programmes to provide federal health insurance for elderly and poor Americans. It also included measures aimed at improving education, preventing crime and reducing air and water pollution. Johnson also made great strides in attacking racial discrimination by signing the historic **Civil Rights Act of 1964** and **Voting Rights Act of 1965.** His wide-reaching achievements improved the lives of millions of Americans and contributed to economic growth and prosperity.

Johnson has been credited as being one of the most important figures in the civil rights movement because of his signing the Civili Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. But he does have some distracters who believes that he was merely and unprincipled politician who used the civil rights issue when he realised the worth of the "Black Vote". However Johnson himself claimed to be an idealist who dreamed of making America a "Great Society".