LBJ's Civil Rights Grade

President Lyndon Johnson was responsible for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, thus doing more for civil rights in this country than any President since Abraham Lincoln. Still, the country erupted in violent protests against police brutality in the summers of 1967 and 1968. What went wrong? Maybe it was the unrealistic expectations that racism could be solved with a stroke of a pen. LBJ understood that progress is made in fits and starts.

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LBJ's own assessment of his achievements was realistic.

God knows how little we've really moved on this issue despite all the fanfare. As I see it, I've moved the Negro from D+ to C-. He’s still nowhere. He knows it. And that's why he's out in the streets. Hell, I’d be there, too.

Source: Smithsonian.

Some people tend to ask, "What more do African-Americans want?" The answer is for America to live up to its ideals. The same thing we should all want. The same thing we should all demand.