February 2012
47 posts
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The Urbanization of Texas following WWII →
In this episode of The Texas Experience, astronaut Sally Ride discusses how WWII production and peacetime progress transformed Texas into an urban state. Click on the link above to watch.
The Texas Experience was produced by Jim Ruddy and presented by the Shell Company. This episode and others can be found at the Texas Archive of the Moving Image.
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Truman Visits El Paso, Texas in 1948. →
President Harry Truman came to speak in El Paso, Texas on September 15, 1948. The first two minutes of this silent home movie captures scenes from the President’s arrival, speech, and the crowds who gathered to hear him.
The Horak Family Collection, no. 1. is held by the Texas Archive of the Moving Image and is available on their website or by clicking the link above.
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1947: LBJ decides to run for Senate in the 1948...
He had been undecided for some time: he’d have to give up his Congressional seat, since he could not run for both offices, but Senator Pappy O’Daniel—remember Pappy?— had been steadily losing support. LBJ thinks he is beatable, and decides to throw his hat in the ring.
But Pappy decides not to run again.
Then, on January 1, 1948, popular ex-governor Coke Stevenson...
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July 2, 1947: Lucy Baines Johnson is born.
Do you know when she changed her name to Luci?
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“[Franklin Roosevelt] was just like a daddy to me always; he always talked to me...”
– Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR had been Johnson’s patron and role model, and Johnson first won election to Congress by emphasizing his support for Roosevelt and the New Deal.
New York Times, Apr 13, 1945, qtd in Randall B. Woods, LBJ:...
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“It was quite a surprise when [Lynda] turned out to be a girl. We hadn’t...”
– Lady Bird Johnson, Oral History Interview XVIII, 9/26-27/80, by Michael L. Gillette, p31, LBJ Library. Online: http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/oralhistory.hom/Johnson-C/CTJ%2018.pdf
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Politics
1943-44. LBJ is a staunch supporter of FDR’s wartime policies of rationing and price controls, but this earns him the enmity of some of his constituents in Texas.
Robert Dallek reports that state oil interests were trying to defeat both Sam Rayburn and LBJ, and the purchase of KTBC and an expensive home in Austin at 1901 Dillman Street added to suspicions that Johnson was engaged in improper...
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1943: the Johnsons buy a house in Washington →
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In 1943, the Johnsons bought their first house in Washington, DC. Located at 4912 30th Place, the red brick colonial-style house was just over 3 miles from their first Washington apartment.
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"Washington Rumor Reports Lyndon Johnson to be...
Upon his return to national politics, LBJ reports to FDR on the state of affairs in the Pacific. Johnson then turns his attention to presenting his plans directly to the public, including a widely transmitted radio broadcast on August 19th. His involvement in national politics prompts speculation that he will become Secretary of the Navy.
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Alien Enemy Detention Facility, Crystal City,... →
During WWII, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) operated three internment camps in Texas. Prisoners included people of Axis nationalities deported from Latin American countries and Axis sailors arrested in American ports after Pearl Harbor, along with Japanese Americans arrested by the FBI.
Click on the link above to play the video. It was produced and narrated by the INS, and...
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June 19, 1942. LBJ leaves Melbourne for Sidney. He... →
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Dorie Miller, Another Texan, Takes Action at Pearl... →
One of the Texan heroes of WWII is featured in the film above. During the attack on Pearl Harbor, Doris “Dorie” Miller, jumped into action on the U.S.S. Arizona. Amidst the chaos of the attack, Miller—a Mess Attendant from Waco—took control of an unmanned gun on deck and shot down 4 Japanese aircraft. Miller was awarded the Navy Cross for his courage.
This short film about...
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May 13, 1942: LBJ leaves Honolulu. He stops in the...
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May 2, 1942: LBJ leaves Washington D.C via Eastern...
He first stops in Houston, Austin, Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco, and then Honolulu. From Honolulu he will head to the South Pacific on May 13, 1942. FDR has asked him to assess conditions in the Allied forces, including a stop in Australia to confer with General Douglas MacArthur.
LBJ brings with him a 16mm video camera—we’ll see the footage he shot later in the week. This is...
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Meanwhile, who was running LBJ's Congressional...
WWII gave Mrs. Johnson, like women across the country, the opportunity to take on new responsibilities. In her case, she took on many of the duties of LBJ’s Congressional office, acting as his “secretary,” responding to constituents, and maintaining his relationship with other representatives. The experience not only helped her gain a new understanding of her husband’s...
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“As a member of the Naval Reserve, of the United States Navy, I hereby urgently...”
– LBJ to FDR, by telegram, Dec. 8, 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor was the previous day.
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“A memory of Lyndon that I will always cherish was the way he looked, walking...”
– Lady Bird Johnson, quoted in Ronnie Dugger, The Politician: From Frontier to the Master of the Senate (1980), 235.