Happy Mother’s Day weekend!
Lady Bird Johnson with daughters Lynda and Luci, and their husbands. (L-R) Charles Robb, Lynda Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson, Luci Johnson Nugent (holding the dog Yuki), Patrick Nugent. 9/30/67.
-from the LBJ Library
From left Sherri Mishikawa, 4, Janet Hirata, 5, and Elizabeth Dobashi, 7, listen to Aileen Tanimoto, 10, play koto, a traditional Japanese instrument during celebration of Japanese Girls Day at Robert Hill School… It was the school’s first observance of Japanese Girls Day patterned after Japan’s traditional festival of the Doll. The idea of the holiday was projected by the principal, Mrs. Isabelle Ames, who spent three years in Japan as a child.
Los Angeles Times
March 4, 1964
Lady Bird’s Beautification of Washington D.C.
Beautification Luncheon in the State Dining Room of the White House. Secretary Stewart Udall, Lady Bird Johnson, and Laurance Rockefeller looking at an architectural model of the Washington DC Mall area. 4/27/67.
March 13, 1967. Lady Bird travels to North Carolina as part of a three-day tour publicizing the impact of the Great Society’s educational components.
LBJ Library photos #C4710-20a and C4714-5A, public domain.
COMMUNITY LEADERS — Typical of the Negro fund-raising groups which support charities is the Women’s Sunday Breakfast Club. Its officers are, from left Mrs. Marilyn Green, financial secretary Mrs. Lois Byrd, treasurer Mrs. Gilbert Lindsay, president, Mrs. Mildred McKinney, recording secretary.
Los Angeles Times
July 6, 1962
December 13, 1966. Lady Bird Johnson records in her diary:
“Sometime during the morning I became aware snow was falling. It is the most magical experience. I love it.I shall know I am really getting old when my heard doesn’t beat a little faster and a smile naturally break out when it starts snowing.”
Lady Bird Johnson, A White House Diary, New York: Dell Books, 1971, pg 506. Photo: Lynda Johnson and friend Warrie Lynn Smith throw snowballs, 2/11/1964.
Forget the ugly Christmas sweaters! Mrs. Kennedy dressed in style at the White House Christmas Party. Here’s an up-close view of the dress worn by Mrs. Kennedy to the 1962 staff Christmas reception at the White House.
Designed by Hubert de Givenchy, this dress is made of deep pink silk radzimir. There is minimal detail on the front of this dress, but the back has a ribbed-weave silk fabric twisted and finished with a hand tied bow.
August 6, 1966. Luci and Pat stage “Operation Departure,” so that they can leave for their honeymoon in private. First, they bade goodbye to LBJ and Lady Bird—in public, for the benefit of the press (above). Then, later, they made their real exit:
“Luci kissed us both and dashed off down the hall. I followed her to the elevator and watched it go down. I knew that… they would go out through the tunnel into the Treasury and into the basement garage. There would be the inconspicuous black sedan and, crouched on the floor of the car, they would begin the drive to New York to spend the night at Mary Lasker’s town house.”
The couple then traveled incognito to the Bahamas. According to contemporary newspaper reports, like this one and this one, they went by the names Mr. and Mrs. Frisbee.
Quote: Lady Bird Johnson’s White House Diary, August 6, 1966. Photo: LBJ Presidential Library photo C2716-14a.
June 28-30, 1966. The Third National Conference of State Commissions on the Status of Women is held in Washington, DC. After becoming disillusioned with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s lack of action to end sex discrimination, Betty Friedan, along with other women attending the conference, form the National Organization for Women (NOW). Betty Friedan, second from left, becomes the first President of NOW.
Photo via the Smithsonian, on Flickr Commons.
“This is the first time since I’ve been in the White House that we have received a woman Chief of State. Add to this the particular alchemy of the Nehru name and the size of the Indian country as an Asian democracy and you have a day alive with drama.”
— Lady Bird Johnson, in A White House Diary, New York: Dell Books, 1971, pg 411. Photo: LBJ Library C1563-6, public domain. This photo was taken on the North Portico of the White House, at the State Dinner for Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 3/28/1966.
800 women strikers for peace on 47th St near the UN Building / World Telegram & Sun photo by Phil Stanziola, 1962.
Related: As it is the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK Presidential Library has a number of Cuban Missile Crisis posts this week.
1964 Presidential Campaign - Civil Rights and the South
It was October 1964, and the November Presidential election was looming as parts of the country still seethed over the Civil Rights Act President Lyndon B. Johnson had signed into law just a few months earlier.
Many white southerners and politicians considered the law an assault on their long-established way of life. Southern Democrats threatened to bolt as racial politics threatened to splinter the party and cost Johnson the election.
It was during this tumultuous time that Lady Bird Johnson embarked on perhaps her most difficult assignment as First Lady. In a four-day, 1,628-mile trip aboard a train dubbed the Lady Bird Special, the First Lady traveled through eight southern states.
This was the first time a First Lady campaigned on her own for her husband and she championed the new legislation that eliminated “Jim Crow” laws and guaranteed African Americans access to all public accommodations and the right to equal employment opportunities.
Along the way, Mrs. Johnson was met with invective that no first lady has experienced since. But the ultimate success of the trip, as she defended the need for the Civil Rights Act, was a testament to Lady Bird’s spirit and stoicism.
While she loved her role as First Lady, she wrote at the end of her tenure, “I wouldn’t trade anything for the experience. But not for anything would I pay for the price of admission again.”
Images: “Please don’t forget to vote” Postcard, 1964 ; Lady Bird Johnson on her Whistle Stop Tour. 10/6/64.
