Page 28 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

A FOUNDATION FOR FELLOWSHIP

At the head of this foresighted band was President Johnson himself.
Johnson had an intense desire to work with young people, to share his wis-
dom and open doors for them the same way others had done for him.
Johnson’s first job in politics—he previously had been a teacher and admin-
istrator at a school for poor Mexican children in Texas—was as an assistant
to Congressman Richard Kleberg. In Washington, Johnson and his new
bride, Lady Bird, did their best to fit into the fast-paced political scene, and
since Kleberg spent much of his time out of the office, it was up to Johnson
to hold down the fort. It was a huge responsibility for such a young man. He
was not yet thirty years old, but his energy and ambition quickly garnered
attention, and in 1935 he was tapped as state director for the Texas branch of
the National Youth Administration. The purpose of the NYA was to provide
people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five with counseling, recre-
ation, education, and job opportunities. Getting such an ambitious program
off to a successful start was another feather in Johnson’s cap and would help
inform his opinion about tapping the energy, idealism, and enthusiasm of
young people working in government to make the nation a better place.
In 1937 he won his first election, a congressional seat representing his
district in central Texas. Shortly after the election, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt was passing through the Lone Star State on his train and invited
the young congressman-elect along for the ride. President Roosevelt later
predicted that Johnson would become “the first southern president” since
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the Civil War. When it came time for committee appointments, Johnson
reaped the benefits of that train ride when the president and another men-
tor, House Majority Leader Sam Rayburn, helped him land an appoint-
ment to the Naval Affairs Committee. When he was elected to the Senate
in 1948, yet another mentor, Georgia Senator Richard Russell, helped him
get his next plum assignment, this time an appointment to the powerful
Armed Services Committee, which Russell chaired. Throughout Johnson’s
political career, he appreciated the leg up he’d received from elder states-
men who believed in him. He also understood that young people could
make a difference, especially if they had support from the kinds of men-
tors he had been blessed to have.

William J. vanden Heuvel, “Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Baines Johnson:
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Architects of a Nation” (address at the LBJ Presidential Library, March 14, 2000). Available
from www.feri.org/news/news_detail.cfm?QID=4568.

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