Women's History Month intends to honor, inspire, educate, unite and promote women in the face of forces intent on subjugating and silencing them. It is about those who overcame overt and imbedded assumptions and prejudice to be their best selves. RGB said it well:
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.”
DAY 29: LADY BIRD JOHNSON
(Image in the public domain via US Government information)
Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Johnson, wife of American president Lyndon B. Johnson, modernized the role of President’s wife. She was notably well educated, and had a business and political savvy that served her well in both private enterprise and for the public good. She was a staunch supporter of education, environmental efforts, and women's rights.
After graduating with degrees in history and journalism, and with a teaching certificate, she joined two other people in purchasing a radio station, then a television one, for $41,000. Those were sold later for $105M. When John F. Kennedy chose her husband as a running mate in the 1960 election, Lady Bird became a fervent campaigner that helped win the election.
She and her husband were responsible for the creation of Medicare and Medicaid, which unified and strengthened a patchwork of public health assistance programs. They also were instrumental in the founding of the Public Broadcasting Service, and the creation of meaningful children's learning programs like Sesame Street.
Her love of nature was cultivated early and sustained throughout her lifetime, manifested to our benefit in her environmental activism and community restoration projects. She was directly responsible for over 200 laws enacted during her husband’s presidency related to environmental protection, including the Wilderness Act of 1964 & The Wild and Scenic Rivers Program. She was also responsible for restoring and revitalizing very poor neighborhoods around our nation’s capital.
Her concerns about equal opportunity led her to co-found Head Start, a program to help children in low-income families receive health and developmental needs. All told, she was a major influencer on the lives and hopes of many, always done with grace and style.
She liked to say, “Where flowers bloom, so does hope.” But she also acted, planting those flowers and working alongside others doing the same, and planting ideas of hope and opportunity into everyone she met.
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