LBJ's Real Voting Record

                          From The Ramparts

                    Junious Ricardo Stanton

           The Real History About Lyndon Baines Johnson

 

“The corporate media campaign against the movie Selma (FAIR Blog1/8/15) continues–the kind of barrage of criticism you don’t see unless something has hit a nerve. The latest pundit to pile on–just in time for the Martin Luther King holiday–is New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd (1/17/15), who complains of the filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s ‘portrayal of Lyndon Johnson as patronizing and skittish on civil rights.’ Writes Dowd: Instead of painting LBJ and MLK as allies, employing different tactics but complementing each other, the director made Johnson an obstacle. Getting up on her highest of horses, Dowd pronounces, ‘On matters of race–America’s original sin–there is an even higher responsibility to be accurate.’ Yes, it is important to be accurate on matters of race–particularly for white columnists lecturing African-American directors about black history.” Selma: The New York Times Sets Martin Luther King Straight on How Freedom Is Won by Jim Naureckas http://www.globalresearch.ca/selma-the-new-york-times-sets-martin-luther-king-straight-on-how-freedom-is-won/5426513

             The attacks on film director Ava DuVernay’s work in the recently released motion picture Selma are a devilish way to discredit the movie to reduce its box office appeal and its chances to receive the acclaim and recognition it is due. Several editorialists and critics chastised DuVernay for her portrayal of  President Lyndon Baines Johnson because she showed Johnson waffling on making voting rights a top priority on his legislative agenda and being less than enthusiastic about King’s determination and refusal to back down, compromise and “wait” on the issue.

            We should not be surprised by this. White folks want to be in total control of the historic narrative about America and how whites and African-Americans are portrayed. Whites can no longer deny the evil and viciousness of the American brand of apartheid. So they want to make it seem like the government was on our side and fully supported breaking down the walls of legislative/cultural color cast, economic privation violence and terror.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Lyndon Johnson acted not out of any sense of morality or ethics; he did so out of necessity.  Martin Luther King Jr and the freedom fighters challenged the establishment by openly defying legal segregation and the sheriffs, police, mayors and governors reacted by unleashing a torrent of violence against unarmed, peaceful demonstrators. Not only did the state attack King and his supporters, the extralegal organizations like the KKK and the White Citizens Council stepped up their campaigns of terror, bombing and murder and the government stood by and allowed them to do it!

Images of violence and brutality of the civil rights struggle were broadcast world wide. During the so called Cold War in the 1960’s these images contradicted and undermined US propaganda because the whole world could see America was not the bastion of freedom, tolerance and democracy it professed to be. The back story, the images of Montgomery, Birmingham and Selma said otherwise. Lyndon Johnson grew up dirt poor in Texas. He was a school teacher in Texas. Ambitious and looking for a way out of poverty he ran and was elected to the US Congress in 1937. The fact is during most of his tenure as a Congressman Johnson voted against every civil rights bill brought before Congress. For twenty years Johnson as a member of both Congress and the US Senate voted against every form of civil rights legislation, he even voted to stop such legislation from coming to the floor whether it was to end the poll tax, segregation in the US military or even a law against lynching, Johnson was against it. You can see this documentation at http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2014/apr/14/barack-obama/lyndon-johnson-opposed-every-civil-rights-proposal/

Johnson pushed for a Civil Rights Bill not out of any love for Black folks or concern for our wellbeing but to ensure Africans in America would be tied to the Democratic Party. He envisioned Blacks being loyal voters for Democrats like those who were allowed to vote were for the Party of Lincoln (Republican) prior to 1932,  FDR and the New Deal.

But Malcolm X saw through Johnson and said this about him in April 1964 during a speech in Cleveland Ohio, “It was the black man's vote that put the present administration in Washington, D.C. Your vote, your dumb vote, your ignorant vote, your wasted vote put in an administration in Washington, D.C., that has seen fit to pass every kind of legislation imaginable, saving you until last, then filibustering on top of that. And your and my leaders have the audacity to run around clapping their hands and talk about how much progress we're making. And what a good president we have. If he wasn't good in Texas, he sure can't be good in Washington, D.C. Because Texas is a lynch state. It is in the same breath as Mississippi, no different; only they lynch you in Texas with a Texas accent and lynch you in Mississippi with a Mississippi accent. And these Negro leaders have the audacity to go and have some coffee in the White House with a Texan, a Southern cracker -- that's all he is -- and then come out and tell you and me that he's going to be better for us because, since he's from the South, he knows how to deal with the Southerners. What kind of logic is that? Let Eastland be president, he's from the South too. He should be better able to deal with them than Johnson.

 In this present administration they have in the House of Representatives 257 Democrats to only 177 Republicans. They control two-thirds of the House vote. Why can't they pass something that will help you and me? In the Senate, there are 67 senators who are of the Democratic Party. Only 33 of them are Republicans. Why, the Democrats have got the government sewed up, and you're the one who sewed it up for them. And what have they given you for it? Four years in office, and just now getting around to some civil-rights legislation. Just now, after everything else is gone, out of the way, they're going to sit down now and play with you all summer long -- the same old giant con game that they call filibuster. All those are in cahoots together. Don't you ever think they're not in cahoots together, for the man that is heading the civil-rights filibuster is a man from Georgia named Richard Russell. When Johnson became president, the first man he asked for when he got back to Washington, D.C., was "Dicky" -- that's how tight they are. That's his boy, that's his pal, that's his buddy. But they're playing that old con game. One of them makes believe he's for you, and he's got it fixed where the other one is so tight against you, he never has to keep his promise.” Malcolm X, The Ballot or The Bullet April 3, 1964 Cleveland Ohio

As a pragmatist Malcolm had every right to be skeptical about Lyndon Johnson given Johnson’s record in Congress and the Senate. But the need to keep up the pretense of democracy and political expediency forced Johnson to act. As Malcolm said the Democrats controlled both the Senate and House of Representatives so it was no big deal for Johnson to get the voting rights act passed!

In the final analysis, Ava DuVernay’s depiction of Johnson in the motion picture Selma was indeed historically correct; and we need to realize the corporate press, Hollywood and the maintainers of collective white delusion are up to their old tricks. Continue supporting the film by doing so we are exercising self-determination by telling our own stories, standing up for ourselves and our heroes!

The last thing I’ll say on this matter is we have to get away from wanting or expecting white folks to validate, appreciate and reward us when we make movies or any other creative endeavor. Given the psychopathy that maintains white domination, Eurocentric imperialism, psychological colonialism and negative racial stereotyping we should not waste our time seeking confirmation or agreement from whites when we tell our stories. Moreover we should always be cognizant of this psychological manipulation and work diligently to free our minds from maladaptive responses to Western oppression and racism. Thinking for ourselves is the first step in this process.

 

                                                            -30-

 

 

                        

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