Exhibition: Bills, Bills, Bills

Bills, Bills, Bills: Lyndon Johnson as Senate Majority Leader

Walk into a replica of the U. S. Senate Chamber for an unrehearsed, unpredictable encounter with an actor (Michael Stuart) who looks, dresses, and talks like Lyndon Johnson as he was in the 1950s. In the LBJ Library’s new exhibit, Bills, Bills, Bills:  Lyndon Johnson as Senate Majority Leader, visitors can talk to the Senate Majority Leader about important legislation of the era, including the creation of NASA, the Interstate Highway Bill, Labor Reform, Social Security Reform, and statehood for Alaska and Hawaii.  Under Johnson’s leadership, the first Civil Rights Bill since Reconstruction was passed into law.       

Johnson redefined the role of Majority Leader from merely a “go between” into the most powerful position in the Senate. Visitors may even get a taste of the “Johnson Treatment,” LBJ’s unique, and highly effective, style of “persuasion.”        
The exhibit covers LBJ’s entire Senate career from his election in 1948 to his election to the vice-presidency in 1961 and will chronicle his rapid rise to power from an 87-vote margin of victory in 1948 – in which he was given the nickname “Landslide Lyndon” – to his selection as Majority Leader in 1955.  

There will be interactive touch screen computers detailing the major bills passed in the 1950s with explanations of how these laws impacted modern America.
A highlight: home movies narrated by Lady Bird Johnson.

Exhibit Dates: Sept. 1, 2007 until May 26, 2008

Hours: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily (closed Christmas Day)

Admission: Free

Parking: Free