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Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn into the [[President of the United States of America|Office of the President]] just hours after John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The [[Oath of Office]] took place aboard [[Air Force One]] just prior to the flight to [[Washington DC]] from [[Dallas]]. It was administered by [[Sarah T. Hughes]] (one of the first justices to hear and write the decision for [[Roe v. Wade]] in favor of [[abortion]]). <ref>University of North Texas Libraries, Sarah T. Hughes Collection, http://www.library.unt.edu/archives/historical-manuscripts/historical-manuscripts-exhibits/hughes/</ref> Also, since no Bible could be found aboard Air Force One, Johnson recited the oath with his hand on a [[Roman Catholic]] [[missal]] which had been in Kennedy's desk.<ref>New York Times, "After a Time of Tragedy, a Beginning Toward the 'Great Society,'" January 1973. Online at http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/04/12/specials/johnson-tragedy.html</ref>

Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn into the [[President of the United States of America|Office of the President]] just hours after John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The [[Oath of Office]] took place aboard [[Air Force One]] just prior to the flight to [[Washington DC]] from [[Dallas]]. It was administered by [[Sarah T. Hughes]] (one of the first justices to hear and write the decision for [[Roe v. Wade]] in favor of [[abortion]]). <ref>University of North Texas Libraries, Sarah T. Hughes Collection, http://www.library.unt.edu/archives/historical-manuscripts/historical-manuscripts-exhibits/hughes/</ref> Also, since no Bible could be found aboard Air Force One, Johnson recited the oath with his hand on a [[Roman Catholic]] [[missal]] which had been in Kennedy's desk.<ref>New York Times, "After a Time of Tragedy, a Beginning Toward the 'Great Society,'" January 1973. Online at http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/04/12/specials/johnson-tragedy.html</ref>

As President, Johnson greatly expanded the federal government with his [[Great Society]] programs.  He played a key role in helping the [[civil rights movement]] win legislative victories, pushing for the adoption of the [[Civil Rights Act]] (1964), which outlawed segregation, and the [[Voting Rights Act]] (1965), which guaranteed African-Americans' right to vote. President Johnson's support for civil rights was purely partisan. Discussing the the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with two southern governors on Air Force One, LBJ stated, “I’ll have them niggers voting Democratic for two hundred years,” according to an African-American steward who was present. The steward, Robert M. MacMillan, added: “That was the reason he was pushing the bill, … not because he wanted equality for everyone. It was strictly a political ploy for the Democratic Party. He was phony from the word go.”<ref>Interview with Robert M. MacMillan, March 23, 1993, cited in Ronald Kessler, ''[http://books.google.com/books/about/Inside_the_White_House.html?id=lJz-yIZNE2sC Inside the White House]'' (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996), p. 33, ISBN 0671879197.</ref>

As President, Johnson greatly expanded the federal government with his [[Great Society]] programs.  He played a key role in helping the [[civil rights movement]] win legislative victories, pushing for the adoption of the [[Civil Rights Act]] (1964), which outlawed segregation, and the [[Voting Rights Act]] (1965), which guaranteed African-Americans' right to vote. President Johnson's support for civil rights was purely partisan. Discussing the the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with two southern governors on Air Force One, LBJ stated, “I’ll have them niggers voting Democratic for two hundred years,” according to Air Force One steward Robert M. MacMillan. “That was the reason he was pushing the bill," added MacMillan, an African American, "not because he wanted equality for everyone. It was strictly a political ploy for the Democratic Party. He was phony from the word go.”<ref>Interview with Robert M. MacMillan, March 23, 1993, cited in Ronald Kessler, ''[http://books.google.com/books/about/Inside_the_White_House.html?id=lJz-yIZNE2sC Inside the White House]'' (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996), p. 33, ISBN 0671879197.</ref>

Johnson also appointed [[NAACP]] lawyer [[Thurgood Marshall]] the first African American Supreme Court Justice. When a young White House attorney recommended Federal Judge William Henry Hastie -- who had been Marshall's professor at Harvard Law School -- as a more qualified African American candidate, LBJ rejected the light-skinned Hastie, explaining, "Son, when I appoint a nigger to the court, I want everyone to know he's a nigger."<ref>Dallek, Robert (1991). ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=t_LjEJdaAiYC Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908-1960]''. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 519. ISBN 0195054350. Hastie had previously been considered for the Court by Eisenhower in 1956, who shelved the idea because Hastie's nomination would have been "[https://books.google.com/books?id=RAVl_KwcBuAC&pg=PA122#v=onepage&q&f=false filibustered to death] by Southerners on the floor of the Senate" (All 22 southern Senators at the time were [http://historycms.house.gov/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=40930 white Democrats]); and again in 1962 by Kennedy, who rejected him after white liberals -- Chief Justice Earl Warren and Justice William O. Douglas -- objected that Hastie, an African American, was [https://books.google.com/books?id=7UTPwJNHQG4C&pg=PA143#v=onepage&q&f=false too conservative] (As Warren put it, "He's not a liberal, and he'll be opposed to the measures we're interested in.") During World War II, Hastie had laid the groundwork for the 1947 integration of the US armed forces when he [http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2014/09/_1st_black_federal_judges_who_were_they.html resigned as aide to Secretary of War Henry Stimson] in protest of segregated training in the US Army Air Force for the Tuskeegee Airmen.</ref>

Johnson also appointed [[NAACP]] lawyer [[Thurgood Marshall]] the first African American Supreme Court Justice. When a young White House attorney recommended Federal Judge William Henry Hastie -- who had been Marshall's professor at Harvard Law School -- as a more qualified African American candidate, LBJ rejected the light-skinned Hastie, explaining, "Son, when I appoint a nigger to the court, I want everyone to know he's a nigger."<ref>Dallek, Robert (1991). ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=t_LjEJdaAiYC Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908-1960]''. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 519. ISBN 0195054350. Hastie had previously been considered for the Court by Eisenhower in 1956, who shelved the idea because Hastie's nomination would have been "[https://books.google.com/books?id=RAVl_KwcBuAC&pg=PA122#v=onepage&q&f=false filibustered to death] by Southerners on the floor of the Senate" (All 22 southern Senators at the time were [http://historycms.house.gov/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=40930 white Democrats]); and again in 1962 by Kennedy, who rejected him after white liberals -- Chief Justice Earl Warren and Justice William O. Douglas -- objected that Hastie, an African American, was [https://books.google.com/books?id=7UTPwJNHQG4C&pg=PA143#v=onepage&q&f=false too conservative] (As Warren put it, "He's not a liberal, and he'll be opposed to the measures we're interested in.") During World War II, Hastie had laid the groundwork for the 1947 integration of the US armed forces when he [http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2014/09/_1st_black_federal_judges_who_were_they.html resigned as aide to Secretary of War Henry Stimson] in protest of segregated training in the US Army Air Force for the Tuskeegee Airmen.</ref>