The Fierce Urgency of Now

by Julian E. Zelizer

  28.“The Voters’ Mood,” Wall Street Journal, Nov. 7, 1966.

  29.Beryl Satter, Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black America (New York: Metropolitan, 2009), 194.

  30.The following account of the Mathias amendment is from Charles McC. Mathias and Marion Morris, “Fair Housing Legislation: Not an Easy Row to Hoe,” Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research 4 (1999): 21–24. See also Watson, Lion in the Lobby, 673–77.

  31.Graham, Civil Rights Era, 261.

  32.Bruce Winters, “House Unit Approves Rights Bills,” Baltimore Sun, June 30, 1966.

  33.Ben A. Franklin, “Wilkins Presses for Open Housing,” New York Times, July 27, 1966.

  34.Ben A. Franklin, “Realtors’ Lobby Calls for Fight on Open Housing,” New York Times, July 29, 1966.

  35.Paul H. Douglas, In the Fullness of Time (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972), 585.

  36.Gene Roberts, “Attack by Whites Foiled in Chicago,” New York Times, Aug. 4, 1966.

  37.“Passes Law Requiring Marchers’ Names, Addresses,” Jet, Sept. 29, 1966, 4; “Youth Killed, Score Hurt In,” Jet, Sept. 15, 1966; “Waukegan Invokes Emergency Curfew,” Washington Post, Aug. 30, 1966; “Seize 64 in Waukegan Riot,” Chicago Tribune, Aug. 29, 1966.

  38.Davies, From Opportunity to Entitlement, 148–49.

  39.John Herbers, “Rights Backers Fear a Backlash,” New York Times, Sept. 21, 1966.

  40.Henry W. De Zutter, “The Coattails of Bigotry,” New Republic, Nov. 5, 1966, 8–9.

  41.John Dreiske, “Hoellen, Pucinski Court ‘Backlash,’” Washington Post, Sept. 25, 1966.

  42.Lyn Shepard, “Congress Wary of Title IV,” Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 2, 1966.

  43.Marjorie Hunter, “Democrats Split on Open Housing,” New York Times, Aug. 1, 1966.

  44.Douglas, In the Fullness of Time, 580.

  45.Johnson and Daley, telephone conversation, Aug. 16, 1966, White House presidential tapes, LBJL.

  46.Watson, Lion in the Lobby, 676.

  47.Richard Lyons, “House Softens Rights Housing by 1 Vote Margin,” Washington Post, Aug. 4, 1966.

  48.John Herbers, “Exemption of 60% in Open Housing Voted by House,” New York Times, Aug. 4, 1966.

  49.Henry H. Wilson to Johnson, Aug. 5, 1966, WHCF Legislation, box 65, file: LE/HU 2 8/1/64–12/31/66, LBJL.

  50.Bruce Winters, “Rights Group Presses for Housing Bill,” Baltimore Sun, Sept. 9, 1966; Andrew J. Glass, “Dirksen Turns Back on Rights Movement,” Washington Post, Sept. 9, 1966.

  51.Johnson and McNamara, telephone conversation, Sept. 29, 1966, White House presidential tapes, LBJL.

  52.“1966 Civil Rights Act Dies in Senate,” 1966 Congressional Quarterly Almanac.

  53.Johnson and Fortas, telephone conversation, Oct. 3, 1966, White House presidential tapes, LBJL.

  54.“1966 Civil Rights Act Dies in Senate.”

  55.“Time Yet to Come,” Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 22, 1966.

  56.Rick Perlstein, Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (New York: Scribner, 2008), 146. See also Michael Flamm, Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005).

  57.D. J. R. Bruckner, “Wisconsin GOP Fights to Regain House Seats,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 24, 1966; Donald Janson, “G.O.P. in Wisconsin Has Uphill Battle,” New York Times, Oct. 25, 1966.

  58.Howard James, “Congressional Targets in Iowa for GOP,” Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 7, 1966.

  59.This aspect of the election has been chronicled in Perlstein’s Nixonland.

  60.Kevin Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2007), 226.

  61.D. J. R. Bruckner, “Illinois Backlash Vote for Percy Not Seen,” Los Angeles Times, Sept. 18, 1966.

  62.Donald Janson, “Backlash Issue Boils in Illinois,” New York Times, Nov. 5, 1966.

  63.Johnson and Douglas, telephone conversation, Oct. 16, 1966, White House presidential tapes, LBJL.

  64.Zelizer, Arsenal of Democracy, 197.

  65.Oliver, Quayle, and Company, A Survey of the Political Climate in Virginia, April 1966, Confidential File, box 81, file: PR 16 Public Opinion Polls (1966) (3 of 9), LBJL.

  66.William M. Blair, “Republican Gains Expected in the Farm Belt as Vietnam and Spending Stir Discontent,” New York Times, Oct. 30, 1966.

  67.Meg Jacobs, Pocketbook Politics: Economic Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005), 246–61.

  68.James D. Savage, Balanced Budgets and American Politics (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1988), 1–8.

  69.Tom Wicker, “The Inflation Debate,” New York Times, March 30, 1966.

  70.Albert T. Kraus, “Inflation Today a Two-Sided Coin,” New York Times, March 27, 1966.

  71.Oliver, Quayle, and Company, A Survey of the Political Climate in the 22nd Congressional District of California, March 1966, Confidential File, box 81, file: PR 16 Public Opinion Polls (1966) (3 of 9), LBJL.

  72.Matusow, Unraveling of America, 161.

  73.Savage, Balanced Budgets and American Politics, 179–81.

  74.For an analysis that stresses some of the continued success of this strategy, see David Shreve, “Lyndon Johnson and the Keynesian Revolution: The Struggle for Full Employment and Price Stability,” in Looking Back at LBJ: White House Politics in a New Light, ed. Mitchell B. Lerner (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), 190–201.

  75.Johnson and Don Cook, telephone conversation, May 14, 1966, White House presidential tapes, LBJL.

  76.Research Council, Popular Support for the “Welfare State,” Jan. 11, 1966, Confidential File, box 81, file: Public Opinion Polls (1966) (3 of 9), LBJL.

  77.Perlstein, Nixonland, 149–50.

  78.Hulsey, Everett Dirksen and His Presidents, 223.

  79.“Make Election a Price Protest Day, Nixon Says,” Los Angeles Times, Nov. 8, 1966.

  80.Don Irwin, “Nixon Comeback Had Its Start in Ashes of 1964 GOP Debacle,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 8, 1968; J. William Middendorf II, A Glorious Disaster: Barry Goldwater’s Presidential Campaign and the Origins of the Conservative Movement (New York: Basic Books, 2006), 247.

  81.Roche to Johnson, May 20, 1966, Aides, Office Files of Charles Roche, box 3, file: Memos to the President 1966, LBJL.

  82.“Lyndon Says G.O.P. Tries to Scare Voter,” Chicago Tribune, Oct. 8, 1966.

  83.Joseph A. Califano Jr., The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson: The White House Years, rev. ed. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 151–52.

  84.“Estimates of the Number of Persons Who Have Benefited from Selected Legislative Actions of the 89th Congress,” Oct. 11, 1966, Office Files of Frederick Panzer, box 334, file: Congress (Great), LBJL. See also Fred Panzer to Johnson, Oct. 4, 1966, Office Files of Frederick Panzer, box 398, file: Memos for the President 4/67 10/66–4/67, LBJL.

  85.Philip Potter, “Johnson Lays ‘Fear’ Tactic to GOP Again,” Baltimore Sun, Oct. 13, 1966.

  86.Roche to Johnson, Oct. 5, 1966, Aides, Office Files of Charles Roche, box 3, file: Memos to the President 1966, LBJL.

  87.“Johnson Signs 8 Bills Supporting Great Society,” New York Times, Nov. 4, 1966.

  88.“A Close Look at the Results over the Country,” U.S. News and World Report, Nov. 21, 1966, 37–45; “GOP ’66: Back on the Map,” Newsweek, Nov. 21, 1966, 31–32.

  89.“Republicans Score Net Gain of 47 House Seats,” 1966 Congressional Quarterly Almanac.

  90.“The 91st: A House That Will Be Less Than Homey,” Time, Oct. 25, 1968; “Republicans Score Net Gain of 47 House Seats.”
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  91.John Tierney and David Yalof, “First-Term Presidents and Their Party’s House Freshmen: Crafting a Strategic Alliance,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 28 (Winter 1998): 23.

  92.Lewis L. Gould, Grand Old Party: A History of the Republicans, rev. ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 382.

  93.Tom Wicker, “House Seats Shift,” New York Times, Nov. 9, 1966.

  94.“Heartland Recaptured,” Time, Nov. 18, 1966.

  95.Graham, Civil Rights Era, 203.

  96.“Republican Renascence,” New York Times, Nov. 13, 1966.

  97.“A Party for All,” Time, Nov. 18, 1966.

  98.American National Election Studies, 1966.

  99.“The Elusive White Backlash,” Afro-American, Nov. 5, 1966.

  100.“White Backlash No Big Factor in Vote, Says King,” Chicago Tribune, Nov. 10, 1966.

  101.Donald Janson, “Percy Calls War a Victory Factor,” New York Times, Nov. 10, 1966; “Percy Unseats Douglas as Senator from Illinois,” Washington Post, Nov. 9, 1966.

  102.Johnson and Humphrey, telephone conversation, Dec. 31, 1966, White House presidential tapes, LBJL.

  CHAPTER 8: THE TRIUMPH OF AUSTERITY POLITICS

  1.Martin F. Nolan, “Dr. King Hits ‘Ill-Considered’ Vietnam War,” Boston Globe, Dec. 16, 1966.

  2.Ida Merriam, Alfred M. Skolnik, and Sophie R. Dales, “Social Welfare Expenditures, 1967–1968,” Social Security Bulletin, Dec. 1968.

  3.MacKenzie and Weisbrot, The Liberal Hour, 318.

  4.John Herbers, “Coalition Takes Control in House,” New York Times, Jan. 11, 1967.

  5.Johnson and Wilkins, telephone conversation, Jan. 11, 1967, White House presidential tapes, LBJL.

  6.Everett Dirksen, statement to the press, Feb. 2, 1967, U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, 90th Cong., 1st sess., A Record of Press Conference Statements Made by Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen and Representative Gerald R. Ford, Dec. 13, 1967, 1, Dirksen Congressional Center.

  7.Dallek, Flawed Giant, 309.

  8.Cathie J. Martin, Shifting the Burden: The Struggle over Growth and Corporate Taxation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 82, 87–88.

  9.“FHA Housing Starts Fell 26% in September from 1965,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 21, 1966.

  10.Eileen Shanahan, “N.A.M. Endorses Tax Rise but Says 10% Is Too Much,” New York Times, Aug. 22, 1967.

  11.Martin, Shifting the Burden, 59.

  12.“Congressmen Ask Cuts in Domestic Plans,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 25, 1967.

  13.“Budget Deficit for War Is Backed by Dirksen,” Washington Post, Jan. 2, 1967.

  14.Matusow, Unraveling of America, 160.

  15.“Congress Vows a ‘Hard Look,’” Boston Globe, Jan. 25, 1967.

  16.Fred Panzer to Johnson, Feb. 24, 1967, Office Files of Frederick Panzer, box 398, file: February, LBJL; “People Not Willing to Accept Tax Boost,” Boston Globe, February 27, 1967.

  17.Governor and Mrs. Richard Hughes, interview by Joe Frantz, Aug. 6, 1969, interview 1, 82, White House Oral History Collection, LBJL; Perlstein, Nixonland, 191.

  18.Johnson and Goldberg, telephone conversation, July 15, 1967, White House presidential tapes, LBJL.

  19.Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin, Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013), 88.

  20.Califano, Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson (1991), 213.

  21.Philip Potter, “GOP Charges ‘Total Failure’ in Proposals to Curb Riots,” Baltimore Sun, July 25, 1967.

  22.Curt Gentry, J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and His Secrets (New York: Norton, 2001), 601.

  23.Gene Roberts, “U.S. Troops Sent into Detroit: 19 Dead; Johnson Decries Riots: New Outbreak in East Harlem,” New York Times, July 25, 1967.

  24.Califano, Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, 219.

  25.“Subsidized Riots,” Chicago Tribune, July 20, 1967.

  26.William C. Selover and Lyn Shepard, “Opposition to Great Society Hardens,” Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 5, 1967.

  27.Woods, LBJ, 791.

  28.Richard L. Lyons, “House Rejects Funds to Kill Rats,” Boston Globe, July 21, 1967; James Macnies, “Clarence Mitchell Assails House for Rat Bill Failure,” Baltimore Sun, July 25, 1967.

  29.“Riots May Set Back Poverty War,” Chicago Daily Defender, July 27, 1967.

  30.Selover and Shepard, “Opposition to Great Society Hardens.”

  31.Fred Panzer to Johnson, Aug. 11, 1967, Office Files of Frederick Panzer, box 398, file: August, LBJL.

  32.“Guard Dog Rentals Are Booming,” Washington Post, July 29, 1967.

  33.George Gallup, “Romney Takes Lead over Sagging Johnson in Ratings,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 20, 1967; “Public Confidence in President Johnson at Lowest Point,” Boston Globe, Aug. 12, 1967.

  34.Douglas Cater, Ben Wattenberg, and Ervin Duggan to Johnson, Aug. 19, 1967, Aides, Files of Douglas Cater, box 17, file: Memos to the President, August 1967, LBJL.

  35.Hobart Rowen, “Economists Back LBJ on Tax Rise,” Washington Post, Sept. 11, 1967.

  36.Richard L. Lyons, “Tax Increase Plan Faces Stiff Battle in Both Houses,” Washington Post, Aug. 4, 1967.

  37.Ibid.

  38.Zelizer, Taxing America, 268–69.

  39.“Texts of Announcement and Address by Representative Mills on Taxes and Expenditures,” New York Times, Nov. 21, 1967.

  40.Johnson and Mills, Sept. 19, 1967, White House presidential tapes, LBJL.

  41.Norman C. Miller, “Johnson’s Tax-Boost Bill Appears Doomed; Cuts Likely in Anti-poverty, Aid Programs,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 9, 1967.

  42.Philip Warden, “LBJ Surtax Bill Shelved,” Chicago Tribune, Oct. 4, 1967.

  43.“Text of Mills Statement on Federal Spending and Growth of Government,” New York Times, Oct. 7, 1967.

  44.Robert Schlesinger, White House Ghosts: From FDR to George W. Bush (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008), 180–81.

  45.Economic Report of the President, February 1968 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968), 11.

  46.Goodwin, Remembering America, 512.

  47.Edwin L. Dale, “The Gold Rush,” New Republic, March 23, 1968, 10.

  48.Lyndon Baines Johnson, The Vantage Point: Perspectives on the Presidency, 1963–1969 (New York: Popular Library, 1971), 316.

  49.“The Gold Crisis Is Here,” Los Angeles Times, March 14, 1968.

  50.Robert M. Collins, More: The Politics of Economic Growth in Postwar America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 69.

  51.Don Irwin, “Nixon Lays Gold Crisis to U.S. Deficit Spending,” Los Angeles Times, March 16, 1968.

  52.Humphrey to Barefoot Sanders, March 13, 1968, Papers of Barefoot Sanders, box 29, file: Tax Bill 1/68–3/68, LBJL.

  53.Larry Levinson, minutes, “Meeting in the Cabinet Room to Discuss the Tax-Increase-Expenditure Reduction Situation,” Nov. 21, 1967, Aides, Files of Joseph Califano, box 16, file: Memos to the President, 11/1/67–12/7/1967, LBJL; Tom Johnson, notes on meeting, Nov. 20, 1967, Tom Johnson’s Notes on Meeting, box 1, file: November 20, 1967, 5:05 p.m., Bipartisan Congressional Leadership, LBJL.

  54.Fowler to Johnson, March 8, 1968, Confidential File, box 63, file: Legislation LE/FI 11-4, LBJL; Barefoot Sanders to Johnson, March 15, 1968, White House Central Files, box 53, file: LE/FI 11-4 2/1/68–4/30/68, LBJL.

  55.Johnson and Dirksen, telephone conversation, March 12, 1968, White House presidential tapes, LBJL.

  56.Johnson and Mills, telephone conversation, March 24, 1968, White House presidential tapes, LBJL.

  57.Johnson and Willard Wirtz, telephone conversation, March 23, 1968, White House presidential tapes, LBJ
L.

  58.Johnson and Fowler, telephone conversation, March 24, 1968, White House presidential tapes, LBJL.

  59.Ibid.

  60.Johnson and Reuther, telephone conversation, March 20, 1968, White House presidential tapes, LBJL.

  61.Zelizer, Arsenal of Democracy, 214–15; James R. Jones, “Why LBJ Bowed Out,” Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2008.

  62.Woods, LBJ, 836.

  63.Goodwin, Remembering America, 522–23.

  64.Robert J. Donovan, “Withdrawal Announcement Catches Nation by Surprise,” Los Angeles Times, April 1, 1968.

  65.Homer Bigart, “Kennedy, Told News on Plane, Sits in Silence amid the Hubbub,” New York Times, April 1, 1968.

  66.Clement J. Zablocki, interview by Paige Mulhollan, Jan. 16, 1969, interview 1, 8, White House Oral History Collection, LBJL.

  67.Goodwin, Remembering America, 523.

  68.“Johnson’s Announcement Spurs Increase in Long-Distance Calls,” New York Times, April 1, 1968.

  69.Henry Gemmill, “Outlook for LBJ,” Wall Street Journal, April 2, 1968.

  70.Frank C. Porter, “Package Passes 57 to 31,” Washington Post, April 3, 1968.

  71.Thomas, Robert Kennedy, 367.

  72.Richard Scott, “Rioting Improves Prospects of Civil Rights Bill,” Guardian, April 9, 1968.

  73.Massey and Denton, American Apartheid, 194.

  74.Graham, Civil Rights Era, 271–72.

  75.David L. Chappell, Waking from the Dream: The Struggle for Civil Rights in the Shadow of Martin Luther King Jr. (New York: Random House, 2014), 17.

  76.Ibid.

  77.Denton and Massey, American Apartheid, 195–96.

  78.Califano to Johnson, April 10, 1968, Aides, Office Files of Joseph Califano, box 16, file: Memos for the President—March, LBJL.

  79.Califano, Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, 285.

  80.Barefoot Sanders to Johnson, April 27, 1968, WHCF, EX FI 11-4 7/16/67, box 61, file: FI 11-4 3/28/68–5/20/68, LBJL.

  81.Okun to Johnson, May 13, 1968, and minutes, cabinet meeting, May 14, 1968, Cabinet Papers, box 13, file: Cabinet Meeting 5/14/68 (2 of 3), LBJL.

  82.Transcript, “Cabinet Meeting of May 1, 1968,” Cabinet Papers, box 13, file: Cabinet Meeting 5/1/68 (1 of 4); transcript, “Cabinet Meeting of May 29, 1968,” Cabinet Papers, box 13, file: Cabinet Meeting 5/29/68 (1 of 3), LBJL.