Johnson

What evidence does LBJ offer as proof of the widening economic gap between black and white Americans? How does he explain this gap?

During his speech at Howard University in 1965, Lyndon Johnson expressed his desire for equal outcome policies directed at African Americans. He made clear in this speech that in order for America to be all that it claimed to be, it was “not enough to open the gates of opportunity; all our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates.”

Throughout his speech, Johnson made multiple references to the struggles of the Negro community in America, primarily economic ones. He observed that there was a widening gap between black and white Americans and gave multiple pieces of evidence as well. He mentioned the rapidly growing unemployment rate for black men, the drastic difference of a black man’s income in relation to a white man’s income (African American families typically made only 53% of an average white American family), and the growing poverty of the African Americans.

Johnson gave two reasons as to why this was. The first was that Negroes were trapped in gateless poverty. They were essentially born poor in a society that was largely apathetic about their struggles. They were in no way able to acquire the necessary skills needed to have a decently paying job. Through no fault of their own, the black community was shut out of the rest of society by a towering, indestructible wall with no way of getting past. The second reason Johnson gave dealt with the past of the black community. It was because of “the devastating heritage of long years of slavery; and a century of oppression, hatred, and injustice.”

The cartoon illustrates his sentiments in that in the beginning, the white child used the black child, held down by shackles, to get to where he wanted to go with no concern for his companion’s well being. No matter what the black child did, said, or felt, the white child continued to climb up to the top of where he wanted to get to. By the time the black child was finally able to stand, the white child was up at the top, apologizing for his earlier actions, saying that he now knows better. But when the black child asks for help, the white child refuses, stating he got there on his own, not even acknowledging the help of the black child. The first three frames represent slavery and the ascension of whites to the top of the economic ladder. The fourth frame represents the freedom of the African Americans, and the final two represent the whites failing to reciprocate the (unwilling) assistance of the blacks, despite the fact that the whites would not be where they were had it not been for the blacks. More than that, the sixth frame highlights the arrogance of the whites, not even acknowledging the actions of their past and building up their own deeds to the point of pompousness.