LBJ Presidential Library celebrates its 50th anniversary with LBJ’s recorded telephone conversations

FOR RELEASE MAY 10, 2021

The LBJ Presidential Library celebrates its 50th anniversary with unprecedented access to LBJ’s recorded telephone conversations. In partnership with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, a new website brings to life the inner workings of Johnson’s presidency.

A free online conversation with Professor Melody Barnes, presidential historian Michael Beschloss, and MSNBC News anchor Brian Williams explores the importance of the tapes and how, 50 years later, our country faces many of the same issues.

May 20: Conversation with: Melody Barnes, Co-Director, Democracy
                                              Initiative, Miller Center of Public Affairs
                                              Michael Beschloss, presidential historian
                                              Brian Williams, MSNBC News anchor,
                                              The 11th Hour

Topic: Debut of telephone conversation website “Inside the Presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson”

(AUSTIN) In honor of its 50th anniversary this month, the LBJ Presidential Library, in partnership with the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, will host a free public online conversation about the extraordinary telephone conversations President Johnson recorded in the White House, offering an unparalleled peek into his presidency. Director of the Domestic Policy Council under President Obama and Professor of Practice at the Miller Center Melody Barnes, best-selling author, and presidential historian Michael Beschloss, and MSNBC news anchor Brian Williams will join Dr. Mark Lawrence, Director of the LBJ Library, for this program on May 20. The program will be streamed on the LBJ Library’s Facebook and YouTube channels.

The event will mark the launch of a new web initiative – a collaboration between the LBJ Library and Miller Center – and is the first time the telephone tapes have been organized digitally by subject along with archival context. Designed and built by the Miller Center’s web team, the website, “Inside the Presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson,” will focus on more than 100 pivotal telephone conversations spanning key areas of the Johnson presidency. While listening to a conversation, users will be able to read the scrolling transcript and each telephone recording webpage includes supporting historical materials such as photographs, documents, biographies, and oral histories from the LBJ Library and Miller Center collections.

The program and website are part of a number of initiatives marking the 50th anniversary of the LBJ Library, which was inaugurated in late May 1971, as President Johnson declared,

"It's all here, the story of our time—with the bark off. There is no record of a mistake, or an unpleasantness or a criticism, that is not included in the files here."

In the half century since, the LBJ Library has adhered to President Johnson’s goal to preserve and protect the historical materials in its collections and make them readily accessible; to increase public awareness of the American experience through relevant exhibits and educational programs; and to advance the LBJ Library's standing as a center for civic education and community leadership while meeting the challenges of a changing world. The website is in keeping with President Johnson’s wish for transparency around the archival records of his administration.

“President Johnson's telephone recordings enable us to appreciate the inner workings of the White House and even LBJ's inner life as he grappled with major issues such as civil rights, poverty, and the Vietnam War," said LBJ Library Director Mark Lawrence. "The new website brings the history of the Johnson presidency to life, enabling us to hear the voices of LBJ as well as Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Jacqueline Kennedy, Robert McNamara, and other major figures of the 1960s."

Photos of original telephone tape recording machine, LBJ on the telephone, & photos/video of LBJ Library 1971 dedication:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VhBhqlZJvmUWbCDzZ4La1O17Rskuv8id

About the speakers:
Melody Barnes is co-director for policy and public affairs for the Democracy Initiative, an interdisciplinary teaching, research, and engagement effort led by the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia. She is the Dorothy Danforth Compton Professor and a professor of practice at the Miller Center and is also a distinguished fellow at the UVA School of Law. Barnes has spent more than 25 years crafting public policy on a wide range of domestic issues. Barnes was assistant to the president and director of the White House Domestic Policy Council in the Obama administration. Last year, she served as host of the podcast “LBJ and the Great Society,” named among the “best podcasts of 2020” by The New Yorker.

Michael Beschloss is an award-winning historian, scholar of leadership and bestselling author of ten books. Among his earlier books are two volumes on Lyndon Johnson’s secret tapes: Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964 and Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson's Secret White House Tapes, 1964-65. Beschloss appears regularly on television as the NBC News Presidential Historian and contributor to the PBS NewsHour. He has also been a contributing columnist to the New York Times. He has won an Emmy for his television work and received six honorary degrees and numerous other awards. Beschloss has the largest Twitter following of any American historian, with more than half a million followers.

Brian Williams is the anchor of “The 11th Hour with Brian Williams,” which airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern on MSNBC. Williams served as anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” for a decade, during which it was the most-watched newscast in the United States. Over the course of his career, Williams has received over a dozen Emmy Awards, eleven Edward R. Murrow Awards, four DuPont-Columbia University Awards, the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism and the industry’s highest honor, the George Foster Peabody Award.

Media Contacts: 

Anne Wheeler    
LBJ Library & Foundation  
awheeler@lbjfoundation.org  
512.731.2351Howard Witt
Miller Center of Public Affairs
hlw6s@virginia.edu

Howard Witt
Miller Center of Public Affairs
hlw6s@virginia.edu