TIP SHEET: U.Va. Resources: Lady Bird Johnson and the Johnson Presidency

July 12, 2007-- In the wake of Wednesday’s death of former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs offers a wealth of resources about the Johnson presidency and Lady Bird’s role and influence in the White House.

The center houses the Presidential Recordings Program (www.millercenter.org/academic/presidentialrecordings/), a unique collection of White House tapes and transcripts, including many pertaining to Mrs. Johnson and her role in the Johnson presidency. 

Presidential Recordings Program scholars transcribe and analyze the secret White House recordings made during the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations. The program also has posted a vast collection of audio and transcripts on its Web site, ready-made for use on television, radio and the Web.

Please feel free to use any of the following materials, crediting the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.

• This online exhibit features a selection of audio clips and flash transcripts (ideal for any multimedia presentation) featuring Mrs. Johnson, taken from the White House tapes of Presidents Johnson and Nixon.
tapes.millercenter.virginia.edu/transcripts/index.php/Exhibits/LadyBird

• On this call to Senator Richard Russell (D-Ga.) on New Year’s Day 1964, LBJ, Mrs. Johnson, and Senator Russell reflect on some of their favorite things about Texas.
tapes.
millercenter.virginia.edu/clips/1964_0101_texas/

• In this 1971 conversation between H.R. Haldeman and President Nixon, the presidential aide tells Nixon about a conversation between Mrs. Johnson and a reporter, relaying LBJ’s feelings about Nixon.
tapes.millercenter.virginia.edu/clips/1971_0917_nixon_lbj/

• Just hours after the assassination of President Kennedy, LBJ and Lady Bird call the slain president’s mother, Mrs. Rose Kennedy, from aboard Air Force One on their way back to the White House.
tapes.millercenter.virginia.edu/clips/1963_1122_kennedy/

• Texas Governor John Connally was also shot in the attack on President Kennedy. Calling from aboard Air Force One on the flight from Dallas to Washington, Lady Bird and LBJ comfort Connally’s wife, Nellie.
tapes.millercenter.virginia.edu/clips/1963_1122_connally/

The American President: An Online Reference Resource (www.millercenter.org) contains essays and information on each presidential administration, including the First Ladies.

• Lyndon B. Johnson:
www.millercenter.virginia.edu/index.php/academic/americanpresident/lbjohnson

• Lady Bird Johnson:
www.millercenter.virginia.edu/index.php/Ampres/essays/lbjohnson/firstlady

Experts

• Guian McKee is an assistant professor with the Miller Center’s Presidential Recordings Program. He is the editor of Volumes 6 and 7 of The Presidential Recordings of Lyndon B. Johnson. These volumes cover the period from mid-April to mid-June 1964, during which the Johnson administration lobbied for passage of the Civil Rights and Economic Opportunity Acts and struggled with increasing difficulties in Southeast Asia.
Telephone: (434) 243-6313
E-mail: gam2n@virginia.edu
www.millercenter.virginia.edu/index.php/about/staff/mckee

• David Coleman is chairman of the Miller Center’s Presidential Recordings Program and an assistant professor who specializes on nuclear and defense policy, U.S.-European relations, and Cold War history.
Telephone: (434) 924-9575
E-mail: dgcoleman@virginia.edu
www.millercenter.virginia.edu/index.php/about/staff/coleman

• Kent Germany is a former associate professor at the Miller Center of Public Affairs, and an editor of the volumes of transcripts of tapes from the Johnson administration (the first three-volume set was published by W.W. Norton in 2005, and the second three-volume set is due to be published by W.W. Norton this fall). Germany, now an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, was coordinator of the Miller Center’s Johnson project. His research interests lay in the American South, race relations, and poverty, and he is completing a book titled Seeking the Great Society: A Southern City After Jim Crow, 1964-1974, a grassroots study of the civil rights and antipoverty movements of the 1960s and 1970s and their role in the transformation of race relations and political culture in New Orleans.
Telephone: (803) 777-1860; (803) 777-9587; or cell: (803) 206-5896
E-mail: germanyk@gwm.sc.edu
www.cas.sc.edu/afra/Kent%20.html