LBJ was one of the best and cagiest politicians and presidents America has ever known. He was a consistent racist and fought Civil Rights legislation, but as the Republican president and war hero Dwight Eisenhower pushed the 1957 Civil Rights legislation Johnson became convinced he needed to throw African Americans a bone, not unlike modern day Democrats who keep blacks on a short, tight leash. Today he is hailed and admired for the 1964 Civil Rights Act. And children are not taught an accurate version of U.S. history. To the victor belongs the archives, as we librarians say.
"These Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they've got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we've got to do something about this, we've got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. For if we don't move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there'll be no way of stopping them, we'll lose the filibuster and there'll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It'll be Reconstruction all over again."
Johnson was recorded on a White House taped (and saved) conversation claiming, “I’ll have them niggers voting Democratic for the next two hundred years.” How true and perceptive.
http://www.fdfny.org/blog/2011/09/18/these-uppity-negroes-lbj/
