Jim Dandy:  Neither do I.  Lyndon Johnson said a lot of crude and assinine things.  Tapes on him were worse than Richard Nixon at times.  He may have thought he won the black vote with the signing of the Civil Rights legislation, but he also realized that he would loose the Southern white vote for generations to come.  That sadly proved true of my home region.  All of the white racists flocked to the Republican Party in droves.  The GOP did not become the radical right party it is today by accident.  The Weasel is right though, it wasn't always that way.

Say what you want about Johnson being a racist.  It is likely true.  But, he did promote and sign a lot of Civil Rights legislation.  Even my Republican hero, Abraham Lincoln, made some comments that would be deemed as racists today.  He had some doubts about signing the Emancipation Proclamation.  But, the point is that he did it anyway cause it was the right thing to do.  Johnson was also aware of political consequences for signing Civil Rights legislation, but he did it anyway.