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The Man Who Sold The World

Lyndon B. Johnson. Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908 - 1973), served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. A Democrat from Texas, he assumed the presidency following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In 1964, he announced his plans for what he called “the Great Society,” a sweeping set of programs that marked the biggest expansion of the federal government ever, but his most impactful legislative act was the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. It changed the face of the US forever.

At the time, immigration was based on the national-origins quota system in place since the 1920s, under which each nationality was assigned a quota based on its representation in past U.S. census figures. The civil rights movement’s focus on equal treatment regardless of race or nationality led many to view the quota system as backward and discriminatory. During Congressional debates, a number of experts testified that little would effectively change under the reformed legislation, and it was seen more as a matter of principle to have a more open policy. Indeed, on signing the Immigration and Nationality Act into law in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson stated that the act “is not a revolutionary bill. It does not affect the lives of millions. It will not reshape the structure of our daily lives or add importantly to either our wealth or our power.” In reality, the passage of this legislation completely changed the face of the USA. It opened the doors to people from all nations, prohibiting discrimination based on national origin, abolishing the earlier quota system based on national origin. Immigrants from Asia and Africa now had the same chances to immigrate to the U.S. as immigrants from Western Europe. Since then, the nation’s foreign-born population has grown from 9.6 million in 1965 to 45 million in 2015, with about half coming from Latin America and a quarter from Asia. As a direct result, the US’s population was one-third minority in 2009, and is on track for a non-White majority by 2042.

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