Lyndon B. Johnson

Texas majority leader whose legendary command of the Senate presaged his presidency.

Overview

Johnson entered the House in 1937, won a contested Senate seat in 1948 by 87 votes, and rose in 1955 to majority leader, the youngest of the century. He transformed the leadership, using charm, pressure, and an unmatched sense of the floor to pass the first civil rights act since 1875 in 1957, the 1958 space and education bills, and much of the Eisenhower program, establishing what observers called the Johnson treatment. Elected vice president in 1960, he became president on Kennedy's assassination and enacted the Great Society and civil rights revolution of 1964 to 1965.