The Lady Bird Special

About this episode

This episode discusses Lady Bird Johnson's 1964 whistle-stop campaign tour through Southern States amidst the Civil Rights movement.

On the morning of Tuesday, October 6, 1964, the Lady Bird Special , a 19-car train carrying First Lady Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson, her supporters, members of the press, and a security detail, departed Union Station in Washington, DC, for an ambitious 1,682-mile whistle-stop campaign tour of Southern States. In four days, Lady Bird gave 47 speeches to over 200,000 people, demonstrating that despite the growing resentment of white Southern Democrats to President Johnson’s signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, neither LBJ nor Lady Bird were giving up on the South. Joining me in this episode is returning guest Shannon McKenna Schmidt, author of You Can't Catch Us: Lady Bird Johnson's Trailblazing 1964 Campaign Train and the Women Who Rode with Her . Our theme song is “ Frogs Legs Rag ,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode audio is “ Lady Bird's Whistle Stop: Ahoskie, NC: 10/6/64, 4:22 PM ,” from the LBJ Library; the audio is in the public domain. The episode image is Lady Bird Johnson posing with group of women aboard the Lady Bird Special , LBJ Library photo by Unknown #33317. Related Episodes: The Southern…

People in this episode

Host: Kelly Therese Pollock

Guest: Shannon McKenna Schmidt

Topics covered

• Lady Bird Johnson
• Civil Rights
• Southern States
• 1964 Campaign
• Whistle-stop Tour
• Women in Politics

Keywords

• Lady Bird Johnson
• 1964 campaign
• Civil Rights Act
• Southern Democrats
• whistle-stop tour
• Shannon McKenna Schmidt
• LBJ Library
• women in politics

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: LBJ Library

Books & works: You Can't Catch Us: Lady Bird Johnson's Trailblazing 1964 Campaign Train and the Women Who Rode with Her, Frogs Legs Rag, Lady Bird's Whistle Stop: Ahoskie, NC: 10/6/64, 4:22 PM

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