Unlikely allies in civil rights fight

"At times, history and fate meet in a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom," asserted President Lyndon Johnson 40 years ago. "So it was last week in Selma, Alabama." Speaking to Congress and to millions watching on television, Johnson recalled the brutal assault that had occurred in Selma a few days earlier, on Sunday, March 7, 1965. On that infamous day, Alabama authorities had mercilessly beaten a peaceful group of black and white protesters, whose aim was simple: to gain the right to vote for black Southerners.

Among those watching Johnson on television that evening was Martin Luther King Jr., whose eyes filled with tears when the president said that the entire nation had to "overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice." And then he exclaimed, "We shall overcome!" Many in the Capitol were moved by the president's words, inspired by the fact that Johnson, a son of the Jim Crow South, had invoked the language of the black struggle.

As Nick Kotz reminds us in "Judgment Days," until fairly recently, Southern schools, restaurants, hotels, and swimming pools were segregated. Blacks could not serve on Southern juries; they endured discrimination in housing and employment; and black citizens in the South were not allowed to vote. But with the start of the 1960s, the ground began to shift, and according to Kotz, Johnson and King played a critical role in helping America realize its age-old promise.

With King and Johnson at the center of his narrative, Kotz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, includes new material that freshens an oft-told tale. Using recently released recordings of telephone conversations in which the loquacious Johnson sought to influence political and civil rights leaders, Kotz paints a memorable portrait of a president responding to the campaign for black freedom. Inspired by Franklin Roosevelt, Johnson fervently believed the federal government had an obligation to aid the oppressed, and "Judgment Days" traces L.B.J.'s tireless effort to pass the landmark laws that would empower black Americans.

Discussing civil rights legislation with Sen. Richard Russell, Georgia's arch segregationist, Johnson warned, "Dick, you've got to get out of my way. If you don't, I'm going to roll over you. I don't intend to cavil or compromise."

True to his word, the president ran great political risks in backing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed institutionalized segregation. And the following year, Johnson energetically supported the Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed blacks the right to vote, something white Southerners had denied them throughout most of the 20th century. Thus, Johnson, the first Southerner to occupy the White House in nearly 50 years, had done more to advance the black struggle than had any president since Lincoln.

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