LBJ v. Coke Stevenson: Lawyering for Control of the Disputed Texas Democratic Party Senatorial Primary Election of 1948
May 29, 2012 7:34 AM   Subscribe

This article explores the history, from the lawyers' perspective [PDF; 41 pages], of a high-profile litigation of sixty years ago, the whirlwind of state and federal litigation that attended the 1948 runoff election battle between Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson and former Texas governor Coke Stevenson for the Texas Democratic Party nomination for the office of United States Senator. Johnson famously won this election by 87 votes [...]

Some sources from the article are available online: oral histories of Lyndon Johnson, the Handbook of Texas, and My Search for Coke Stevenson by Robert Caro.

Previously on Robert Caro's biographies of Lyndon Johnson.
posted by smcg (7 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Lyndon lived what Houdini called the "corrugated side of life".
posted by clavdivs at 8:11 AM on May 29, 2012 [2 favorites]


stolen, plain and simple. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Civil Rights Act of 1965, built on this foundation. No other politician would have been able to pass either measure through the Senate.
posted by Ironmouth at 8:19 AM on May 29, 2012


If you've got a couple years to sit down and read them, Robert Caro has written some fabulous stuff about LBJ. He's just come up with Volume 4 that gets us through 1964! "The Passage of Power"

The man is 76 years old. I pray for him to live long enough to get to 1973, or at least Januar 20, 1969.
posted by randomkeystrike at 9:05 AM on May 29, 2012


Thanks for this! I just picked up Caro's Passage of Power.
posted by zarq at 9:15 AM on May 29, 2012


Yay! I just started Master of the Senate!
posted by Ducks or monkeys at 12:30 PM on May 29, 2012


stolen, plain and simple. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Civil Rights Act of 1965, built on this foundation. No other politician would have been able to pass either measure through the Senate.

Ironmouth

I don't know anything about this election, yet, but you are right. Once he was in power, he was able to get this type of legislation passed. Masterful politician. I just wish the CRA could have been passed a century earlier.
posted by Nadie_AZ at 4:17 PM on May 29, 2012


The New York Times Sunday magazine article on Caro had the observation that he is now writing his biography of Johnson at a slower pace than Johnson lived the actual subject life.
posted by bukvich at 4:51 PM on May 29, 2012


« Older The SLR Camera Simulator   |   It runs Crysis. Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments