Maybe it’s just end-of-the-year insouciance, but here comes another slightly unconventional post! One day after NECHE’s annual December meeting in Boston (a terrific gathering!), I flew to Austin to celebrate the upcoming retirement of one of my accrediting colleagues, Belle Wheelan. Belle has been President of SACSCOC, the accrediting association of eleven southern states, for twenty years and back when I was President of Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, I was a frequent attendee at this conference. It seemed fitting for me to take this opportunity to honor Belle –along with 3,000 other accreditation fans who came to Austin for the three-day event.
While in Austin I was persuaded by my wife to visit the LBJ Presidential Library on the campus of the University of Texas. Located steps away from UT’s football stadium, the library is an architectural masterpiece and more importantly, provides a fascinating look back at one of the most consequential periods of America’s political history. Given the turmoil our country is facing right now (particularly the attacks on higher education), our visit felt quite timely.
How many of you remember the Great Society? I honestly had forgotten this phrase that described Johnson’s domestic agenda, but it all came back to me as I wandered the halls of the museum. It’s fair to say that more significant legislation passed in the few years of LBJ’s presidency than since the New Deal; certainly we’ve seen nothing like it since. And despite LBJ’s tragic legacy of the Vietnam War, his political prowess was astonishing.
LBJ began as a teacher, then a congressional aide, and was elected to the House of Representatives at the tender age of 29. He served in the House for 11 years before barnstorming Texas and winning the race for Senate in 1948. In three short years, he became Minority Whip of the Senate, and three years after that continued his meteoric rise to become Majority Leader. Just six years later, he was tapped for VP by John Fitzgerald Kennedy to win the 1960 election. And three years later, LBJ was sworn in as President with a blood-soaked Jackie Kennedy standing in a daze beside him the day Kennedy was killed.
In 1964, Johnson was elected in a true landslide and made the decision to gamble all the political capital he possessed into making his domestic agenda a reality. Boy howdy, that son of Texas delivered .. and fast!
LBJ was famous for his arm-twisting and relentless hounding of anybody foolish enough to oppose him. In the Library, you can listen to his mesmerizing phone conversations with senators, J. Edgar Hoover, and Jackie to experience those formidable skills of persuasion.
In his first year as President, LBJ passed the 1963 Clean Air Act. In 1964, he passed the sweeping Civil Rights Act (the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction) and National Wilderness Preservation Act, plus established the National Endowment for the Arts. He also negotiated the Revenue Act of 1964, cutting taxes by 20% – including the top tier from 91-70% !! In 1965, he signed into law the historic Voting Rights Act, the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Housing and Urban Development Act, and Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act. That same year, he also expanded Social Security establishing Medicare and Medicaid, and passed the Higher Education Act. Of course, I was most captivated by the Higher Ed act, which made a federal promise to strengthen the institutions of higher ed, offer scholarships, provide low-interest loans, establish a National Teachers Corp, and create the American system of accreditation that we know today.
LBJ fought his valiant War on Poverty in the midst of a flailing, horrific Vietnam War…tsunamic changes in American culture and mores… and massive social unrest. Sound familiar? Despite his spectacular legislative achievements, he was deeply unpopular and chose not to seek re-election in 1970. He died 3 short years later at the tender age of 65.
It occurred to me, walking through these pages in time, that we like to think of our country as always moving forward, always making progress. In some ways, it has. But in other really important ways, there’s no doubt that we have retreated. I don’t think the retreat is permanent. At least, I hope and pray for our children that it is not. It was inspiring that day in Austin to learn about a man who did not know the meaning of retreat — and to appreciate all the good we can do together when we decide to.
