The Day LBJ Destroyed Paul Douglas

As I continue to work through Robert Caro’s great works of history, a passage I read yesterday is sticking with me.

I am on Caro’s third of five books chronicling the life and the many contradictions of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Ever the pragmatist, LBJ fought against Civil Rights alongside the racist Southern Coalition for many years. Then, suddenly he was for Civil Rights, and he was for it in a way that changed history.

But the passage I reference came long before that metamorphosis was to take place. And LBJ’s nemesis in this story is Sen. Paul Douglas, D-Ill., liberal lion and decidedly not a pragmatist. It was the summer of 1956 and Douglas was trying once again to get Civil Right legislation past the Southern bloc. Or at least get it to the floor for a vote.

The details are not important, but LBJ, then majority leader, was far too crafty for Douglas. Using a variety of parliamentary procedures and arcane Senate rules, Johnson blocked Douglas at every turn. That led to a showdown that left Douglas meekly vanquished.

Although victorious, LBJ was not satisfied. With the Senate set to take a voice vote on Douglas' futile motion, Johnson suddenly objected and asked for a roll call vote. The effect was to publicly and forcefully humiliate Douglas.

I’ll let Caro pick it up from here:

What I have been thinking is how this peak despondency resembles how many feel in our country at this moment. Many people who think America is at a troubling crossroads.

Paul Douglas carried on, and found salvation out of his greatest despair. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was followed by the Civil Rights Rights Act of 1960, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Sitting in his office in July 1956, Sen. Douglas could not have imagined what the next decade would bring. 

He certainly never could have dreamed that LBJ would be the driving force behind those bills.