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 Obama will join former presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and
George W. Bush in speaking at the Lyndon Baines Johnson presidential
library in Austin, Texas, this week to mark a half century since
Johnson's landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act.
As the first African-American president, Obama is the physical
embodiment of racial progress that Johnson brought about. The civil
rights law, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the creation of
Medicare were instrumental in improving equality for racial
minorities and putting desegregation in the past.
"What you can say is that trio of laws allowed for the ascent of
Barack Obama to the presidency and any other person of color who
might follow in his wake," said Mark Updegrove, director of the LBJ
library.
Obama's top success for African-Americans was gaining passage of the
Affordable Care Act, the healthcare law that, after a rocky rollout,
is intended as a safety net for millions of Americans. In addition,
efforts by Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder, to aggressively
enforce civil rights laws are welcome in the African-American
community.
But creating jobs for black Americans has been a struggle. The
annual State of Black America report by the National Urban League,
entitled "One Nation Underemployed: Jobs Rebuild America," said
African-Americans still lag far behind in jobs and opportunity.
The report said 20.5 percent of African-American workers are either
jobless or working part-time, compared with 18.4 percent for
Hispanic workers and 11.8 percent for white workers.
Obama's second-term agenda of reducing income equality through an
increase in the minimum wage, for example, is aimed at addressing
that disparity. But he's got a long way to go.
"The president has taken a number of steps in trying to close the
gap that exists in this country but there's a great deal of
unfinished business as he looks to his remaining 2-1/2 years in
office," said Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League.
Comparisons between Obama and Johnson are inevitable as the 44th
president prepares to visit the library of the 36th on Thursday.
Johnson, a former Senate majority leader who schmoozed friends and
opponents and sometimes used hardball tactics to win support, stands
in sharp contrast to the professorial Obama, who relies heavily on
speeches to sway public opinion.
Senior Obama administration officials say that when Johnson's and
Obama's legislative records are put side by side, they are not all
that different.
When he had Democratic majorities in Congress in his first two
years, Obama gained passage of his signature healthcare law, an
economic stimulus bill, Wall Street reform and more. He has faced
far more difficulty since Republicans gained control of the U.S.
House of Representatives after the 2010 elections.
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White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said all presidents face
unique challenges: While Johnson had a large Democratic majority, he
"faced a lot of deep opposition within his own party to the civil
rights legislation and had to build a bipartisan majority to pass
the bill." The civil rights debate now extends to issues like
attempting to establish a pathway to citizenship for the estimated
12 million undocumented people in the United States. This is
unfinished business for Obama, who now views it as a long shot that
Congress will pass immigration reform this year.
"On civil rights, he has struggled with the immigration bill that
would take 12 million people out of the shadows and give them rights
they don't have," said Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an
independent who generally supports Obama.
Obama's boosters say the president in some respects has experienced
racism himself in pushing his priorities.
Assistant House Democratic Leader James Clyburn of South Carolina,
the top African-American in Congress, said he believes a lot of
people in the country want to see Obama fail and he attributes this
in part to racism.
"There are a lot of people who believe that certain positions are
reserved for only white people, and the presidency is one of them,"
Clyburn said.
Obama, while seeing his overall job approval rating slide into the
40s, is still enjoying overwhelming support from the
African-American community.
A recent Reuters-Ipsos poll said 72 percent of African-Americans
approve of the job he is doing, including 72 percent on the economy,
63 percent on foreign policy, and 66 percent on dealing with
Congress.
"In part, his major contribution is just being there," said Senator
Angus King, a Maine independent. "And in part, his major
contribution is not being there as a civil rights figure, but as a
man who is president who happens to be black."
(Reporting by Steve Holland; editing by Caren Bohan and Cynthia
Osterman)
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