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History is the study of past events, which can be told us through books, newspapers, artifacts, and even recordings of conversations. Having record of historical events allows us to understand past events and keep ourselves from making the same mistakes. Russell B. Long the Democratic senator of Louisiana during 1966 suggested to President Johnson that he record his conversations so that his words can be directly relayed to the people . “As it turns out, President Johnson did have their exchange on tape, though he would not admit it to Long, for Johnson secretly recorded many of his conversations in the Oval Office… [Capturing] some of the most significant moments in modern American political history .” One example of a “significant moment”, we now have access to are tapes recorded in the White House in 1964 by President Johnson. On June 23rd, 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson recorded a series of phone calls he had with several different colleagues discussing the Mississippi Burning Crisis that took place that day.
During the year 1964 there was a lot of violence and discrimination against African Americans in the state of Mississippi. African Americans were not registered to vote because of the fear of losing jobs as well as holding on to the idea that voting was a business of the white man only . For those African American who did make an effort to vote, it was not easy to accomplish. A law was put in place that made voters fill out a 22 question questionnaire which included a section where you must interpret a part of the Mississippi constitution. This discouraged African American voters because at this time many could not read or write . Mississippi at this time was referred to as a closed state. In order to open up the state to the rest of the country Bob Moses announced Freedom Summer. Freedom Summer was a plan to send “1000 teachers ministers lawyers and students from all around the country to work in freedom schools, community center programs, voter registration activity, research work and to work in the white communities .” Three civil rights workers who were volunteers for Freedom Summer, James Chaney, Mickey Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman headed to Mississippi on June 21st, 1964 to investigate the burning of a black Methodist church which had held a civil rights meeting just weeks before it had been burned down. Later that afternoon the young men were arrested for a traffic violation but were later released that night . However open their release the men seemed to have “disappeared from the face of the earth .” Once word of the disappearance of these boys reached the White House, President Johnson took action to find out what happened.
Although President Johnson’s handling of the situation may not have been perfect, there are still a few things we can learn from his experience on the day of the Mississippi Burning crisis. Three things that we can learn from President Johnson on this day are stability and honesty, the importance of strong relationships, and how to past incidents into future success.
To be a good leader, you need to show the people who you are governing that you are confident and stable in the decisions you make to protect and serve them. After the murder of JFK, Johnson took office and was focused on continuing to runthe country as smoothly as possible. I believe on the day the investigation began, the president was most focused on making sure that there was not mass hysteria and a worldwide freak out over the issues taking place. Johnson had already been dealing with blame and hate for his apparent cause and involvement with the issues going on with Vietnam, therefore Johnson wanted to make sure that this issue did not get a big and heated as that did for him. He wanted to create a stable image for the US and specifically for the people who lived in Mississippi who were scared and felt threatened due to the actions taking place in their home state. Even with many other things going on during this day, Johnson made sure to make a series of calls early that afternoon about the missing men and also carefully weighed decisions on how to heighten the investigation and to help ease the concern of the parents. After word that the burned car that the young men had been driving on that day had been found and their had been no trace of the men burned with it and word that the NAACP “had voted… to picket the Justice Department to protest the lack of protection in the South ”, Johnson immediately called the parents of the men to inform them and show them they are making an effort to find out what happened. Johnson spoke with Anne Schwerner, the mother of Michael, and reminded her that there is now more “hope” than they had before that they could be alive somewhere. This honesty and work ethic would be important to an audience in 2020. People don’t feel safe if you know that a killer is still roaming the streets especially if that killer had committed the crime in your own state.
As the president you will have to deal with a wide range of issues over the years. Unexpected cases such as that of the Mississippi burning can occur and add more stress to your schedule. In order to handle all that is thrown your way as the president, you are going to need to build a strong network and personal relationships with other figures of power to help delegate and deal with these matters. On June 22rd, the day before the president began the investigation into the disappearance of these men, he was occupied with “the visit of Prime Minister Inönü and other ceremonial duties.” But , his duties didn’t stop there. The next day, the president had more recorded calls in the Oval Office than ever before. Not only did he have to address and investigate the Mississippi burning but, the President was focused on his upcoming election and was set to address the Democratic Party at the state level and he also was involved in many deliberations about candidates to lead the Community Relations Service. ” With this going on, Johnson was lucky to have a network of people to help him out. Once word of the disappearance had reached the families of the missing individuals they planned to set out to the white house to talk to the president. Johnson said to James Eastland, an old senate friend who is from Mississippi, “They want to come to the White House to see the President, and I told them that I thought that that would be better to let Lee White—who handles matters like that for me—to talk to them, and he’d go up to Ryan’s office and talk to them. ” Without the help of Lee white, an assistant who handles crises like this for him, Johnson would have to talk to the men himself and was afraid he might add “fuel to the fire .” Johnson is also able to use his personal relationships with his network to help him make decisions on how to best handle situations. In this case, he reaches out to James Eastland as a friend to get his perspective. Eastland adds a different perspective on what is believed to have happened to these men. Despite the fact that he does not want to believe the worst, some people that Johnson has talked to are afraid that something bad has happened to these men. However, Eastland tells Johnson that he believes that it is a publicity stunt and goes on to explain how there is no Ku Klux Klan in the area or other White powers that would hurt these men. Therefore it does not make sense that someone in this area would have murdered them. Eastland then tells him that he agrees with him that Lee White should reach out o the parents and that he does not think that Johnson needs to make another statement at this time. President Johnson also has a relationship with Edgar Hoover, the FBI director who kept him updated on the findings and information pertaining to the disappearance of these men. He also provides advice such as, “politically, it might be wise for you to just step in and say that you’ve been in communication with the bureau [FBI], somewhat along the statement that you issued this morning. I wouldn’t give the details of the number of agents that we’ve got. You said it was substantially augmented, and I think that’s . . . that’s entirely sufficient. ” Having people like Hoover, White, and Eastland as connections helps Johnson divide the work load and navigate the best ways to approach difficult decisions that a president faces on a daily basis.
Lastly, it is important to focus on the work Johnson did as a result of the incident that took place on June 23rd, 1964 and that other racial discrimination and violence that took place in the months and years following. As Rita Schwerner said, “its tragic as far as I’m concerned that white northerners have to be caught up in the machinery of injustice and indifference in the south before the American people register concern .” Nonetheless, Johnson continued the work that JFK started with Civil rights by signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2nd 1964. The Civil Rights Act increased the federal governments power to ban discrimination based on race. In the following year Johnson also passed the Voting Rights Act, which made it illegal to impose restrictions to deny and guaranteed African Americans the right to vote.
Lyndon Johnson’s actions and experience on that day can help future presidents navigate how to deal with a crisis. It is important to create stability, build a strong network, and focus on improving t he future not changing the past, it can help make you a successful president.
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