EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

Book The Forgotten Legacy of Lyndon Johnson

Download or read book The Forgotten Legacy of Lyndon Johnson written by David S. Schwam and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book LBJ s Neglected Legacy

    Book Details:
  • Author : Robert H. Wilson
  • Publisher : University of Texas Press
  • Release : 2015-06-15
  • ISBN : 1477300562
  • Pages : 650 pages

Download or read book LBJ s Neglected Legacy written by Robert H. Wilson and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2015-06-15 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the five full years of his presidency (1964–1968), Lyndon Johnson initiated a breathtaking array of domestic policies and programs, including such landmarks as the Civil Rights Act, Head Start, Food Stamps, Medicare and Medicaid, the Immigration Reform Act, the Water Quality Act, the Voting Rights Act, Social Security reform, and Fair Housing. These and other “Great Society” programs reformed the federal government, reshaped intergovernmental relations, extended the federal government’s role into new public policy arenas, and redefined federally protected rights of individuals to engage in the public sphere. Indeed, to a remarkable but largely unnoticed degree,Johnson’s domestic agenda continues to shape and influence current debates on major issues such as immigration, health care, higher education funding, voting rights, and clean water, even though many of his specific policies and programs have been modified or, in some cases, dismantled since his presidency. LBJ’s Neglected Legacy examines the domestic policy achievements of one of America’s most effective, albeit controversial, leaders. Leading contributors from the fields of history, public administration, economics, environmental engineering, sociology, and urban planning examine twelve of LBJ’s key domestic accomplishments in the areas of citizenship and immigration, social and economic policy, science and technology, and public management. Their findings illustrate the enduring legacy of Johnson’s determination and skill in taking advantage of overwhelming political support in the early years of his presidency to push through an extremely ambitious and innovative legislative agenda, and emphasize the extraordinary range and extent of LBJ’s influence on American public policy and administration.

Book LBJ s Neglected Legacy

    Book Details:
  • Author : Robert H. Wilson
  • Publisher : Univ of TX + ORM
  • Release : 2015-06-15
  • ISBN : 1477300554
  • Pages : 650 pages

Download or read book LBJ s Neglected Legacy written by Robert H. Wilson and published by Univ of TX + ORM. This book was released on 2015-06-15 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the five full years of his presidency (1964–1968), Lyndon Johnson initiated a breathtaking array of domestic policies and programs, including such landmarks as the Civil Rights Act, Head Start, Food Stamps, Medicare and Medicaid, the Immigration Reform Act, the Water Quality Act, the Voting Rights Act, Social Security reform, and Fair Housing. These and other “Great Society” programs reformed the federal government, reshaped intergovernmental relations, extended the federal government’s role into new public policy arenas, and redefined federally protected rights of individuals to engage in the public sphere. Indeed, to a remarkable but largely unnoticed degree,Johnson’s domestic agenda continues to shape and influence current debates on major issues such as immigration, health care, higher education funding, voting rights, and clean water, even though many of his specific policies and programs have been modified or, in some cases, dismantled since his presidency. LBJ’s Neglected Legacy examines the domestic policy achievements of one of America’s most effective, albeit controversial, leaders. Leading contributors from the fields of history, public administration, economics, environmental engineering, sociology, and urban planning examine twelve of LBJ’s key domestic accomplishments in the areas of citizenship and immigration, social and economic policy, science and technology, and public management. Their findings illustrate the enduring legacy of Johnson’s determination and skill in taking advantage of overwhelming political support in the early years of his presidency to push through an extremely ambitious and innovative legislative agenda, and emphasize the extraordinary range and extent of LBJ’s influence on American public policy and administration.

Book Haunting Legacy

    Book Details:
  • Author : Marvin Kalb
  • Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
  • Release : 2011
  • ISBN : 081572389X
  • Pages : 370 pages

Download or read book Haunting Legacy written by Marvin Kalb and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States had never lost a war —that is, until 1975, when it was forced to flee Saigon in humiliation after losing to what Lyndon Johnson called a "raggedy-ass little fourth-rate country." The legacy of this first defeat has haunted every president since, especially on the decision of whether to put "boots on the ground" and commit troops to war. In Haunting Legacy, the father-daughter journalist team of Marvin Kalb and Deborah Kalb presents a compelling, accessible, and hugely important history of presidential decisionmaking on one crucial issue: in light of the Vietnam debacle, under what circumstances should the United States go to war? The sobering lesson of Vietnam is that the United States is not invincible —it can lose a war —and thus it must be more discriminating about the use of American power. Every president has faced the ghosts of Vietnam in his own way, though each has been wary of being sucked into another unpopular war. Ford (during the Mayaguez crisis) and both Bushes (Persian Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan) deployed massive force, as if to say, "Vietnam, be damned." On the other hand, Carter, Clinton, and Reagan (to the surprise of many) acted with extreme caution, mindful of the Vietnam experience. Obama has also wrestled with the Vietnam legacy, using doses of American firepower in Libya while still engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan. The authors spent five years interviewing hundreds of officials from every post war administration and conducting extensive research in presidential libraries and archives, and they've produced insight and information never before published. Equal parts taut history, revealing biography, and cautionary tale, Haunting Legacy is must reading for anyone trying to understand the power of the past to influence war-and-peace decisions of the present, and of the future.

Book A Companion to Lyndon B  Johnson

Download or read book A Companion to Lyndon B Johnson written by Mitchell B. Lerner and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-02-13 with total page 617 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This companion offers an overview of Lyndon B. Johnson's life, presidency, and legacy, as well as a detailed look at the central arguments and scholarly debates from his term in office. Explores the legacy of Johnson and the historical significance of his years as president Covers the full range of topics, from the social and civil rights reforms of the Great Society to the increased American involvement in Vietnam Incorporates the dramatic new evidence that has come to light through the release of around 8,000 phone conversations and meetings that Johnson secretly recorded as President

Book The Passage of Power

Download or read book The Passage of Power written by Robert A. Caro and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 785 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE, THE MARK LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE, THE AMERICAN HISTORY BOOK PRIZE Book Four of Robert A. Caro’s monumental The Years of Lyndon Johnson displays all the narrative energy and illuminating insight that led the Times of London to acclaim it as “one of the truly great political biographies of the modern age. A masterpiece.” The Passage of Power follows Lyndon Johnson through both the most frustrating and the most triumphant periods of his career—1958 to1964. It is a time that would see him trade the extraordinary power he had created for himself as Senate Majority Leader for what became the wretched powerlessness of a Vice President in an administration that disdained and distrusted him. Yet it was, as well, the time in which the presidency, the goal he had always pursued, would be thrust upon him in the moment it took an assassin’s bullet to reach its mark. By 1958, as Johnson began to maneuver for the presidency, he was known as one of the most brilliant politicians of his time, the greatest Senate Leader in our history. But the 1960 nomination would go to the young senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy. Caro gives us an unparalleled account of the machinations behind both the nomination and Kennedy’s decision to offer Johnson the vice presidency, revealing the extent of Robert Kennedy’s efforts to force Johnson off the ticket. With the consummate skill of a master storyteller, he exposes the savage animosity between Johnson and Kennedy’s younger brother, portraying one of America’s great political feuds. Yet Robert Kennedy’s overt contempt for Johnson was only part of the burden of humiliation and isolation he bore as Vice President. With a singular understanding of Johnson’s heart and mind, Caro describes what it was like for this mighty politician to find himself altogether powerless in a world in which power is the crucial commodity. For the first time, in Caro’s breathtakingly vivid narrative, we see the Kennedy assassination through Lyndon Johnson’s eyes. We watch Johnson step into the presidency, inheriting a staff fiercely loyal to his slain predecessor; a Congress determined to retain its power over the executive branch; and a nation in shock and mourning. We see how within weeks—grasping the reins of the presidency with supreme mastery—he propels through Congress essential legislation that at the time of Kennedy’s death seemed hopelessly logjammed and seizes on a dormant Kennedy program to create the revolutionary War on Poverty. Caro makes clear how the political genius with which Johnson had ruled the Senate now enabled him to make the presidency wholly his own. This was without doubt Johnson’s finest hour, before his aspirations and accomplishments were overshadowed and eroded by the trap of Vietnam. In its exploration of this pivotal period in Johnson’s life—and in the life of the nation—The Passage of Power is not only the story of how he surmounted unprecedented obstacles in order to fulfill the highest purpose of the presidency but is, as well, a revelation of both the pragmatic potential in the presidency and what can be accomplished when the chief executive has the vision and determination to move beyond the pragmatic and initiate programs designed to transform a nation. It is an epic story told with a depth of detail possible only through the peerless research that forms the foundation of Robert Caro’s work, confirming Nicholas von Hoffman’s verdict that “Caro has changed the art of political biography.”

Book Indomitable Will

Download or read book Indomitable Will written by Mark K. Updegrove and published by Crown Pub. This book was released on 2012 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive oral history of Johnson's presidency is presented in the words of the 36th President and some of his closest associates, offering insight into his perspectives on the sweeping changes affecting his time, from Medicare and civil rights to his anti-poverty legislation and the Vietnam War. By the author of Second Acts. 50,000 first printing.

Book The Triumph   Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson

Download or read book The Triumph Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson written by Joseph A. Califano and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-02-03 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of “Five Best Books about Wartime Presidents”—Michael Bechloss, The Wall Street Journal From Lyndon Johnson’s closest domestic adviser during the White House years comes a book in which “Johnson leaps out of the pages in all his raw and earthy glory” (The New York Times Book Review) that’s been called “a joy to read” (Stephen Ambrose, The Washington Post Book World). And now, a new introductory essay brings the reader up to date on Johnson’s impact on America today. Califano takes us into the Oval Office as the decisions that irrevocably changed the United States were being crafted to create Johnson’s ambitious Great Society. He shows us LBJ’s commitment to economic and social revolution, and his willingness to do whatever it took to achieve his goals. Califano uncorks LBJ’s legislative genius and reveals the political guile it took to pass the laws in civil rights, poverty, immigration reform, health, education, environmental protection, consumer protection, the arts, and communications. President Lyndon Johnson was bigger than life—and no one who worked for him or was subjected to the “Johnson treatment” ever forgot it. As Johnson’s “Deputy President of Domestic Affairs” (The New York Times), Joseph A. Califano’s unique relationship with the president greatly enriches our understanding of our thirty-sixth president, whose historical significance continues to be felt throughout every corner of America to this day. A no-holds-barred account of Johnson’s presidency, The Triumph & Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson is an intimate portrait of a President whose towering ambition for his country and himself reshaped America—and ultimately led to his decision to withdraw from the political arena in which he fought so hard.

Book Lyndon B  Johnson

Download or read book Lyndon B Johnson written by Charles Peters and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-06-08 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The towering figure who sought to transform America into a "Great Society" but whose ambitions and presidency collapsed in the tragedy of the Vietnam War Few figures in American history are as compelling and complex as Lyndon Baines Johnson, who established himself as the master of the U.S. Senate in the 1950s and succeeded John F. Kennedy in the White House after Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963. Charles Peters, a keen observer of Washington politics for more than five decades, tells the story of Johnson's presidency as the tale of an immensely talented politician driven by ambition and desire. As part of the Kennedy-Johnson administration from 1961 to 1968, Peters knew key players, including Johnson's aides, giving him inside knowledge of the legislative wizardry that led to historic triumphs like the Voting Rights Act and the personal insecurities that led to the tragedy of Vietnam. Peters's experiences have given him unique insight into the poisonous rivalry between Johnson and Robert F. Kennedy, showing how their misunderstanding of each other exacerbated Johnson's self-doubt and led him into the morass of Vietnam, which crippled his presidency and finally drove this larger-than-life man from the office that was his lifelong ambition.

Book Lyndon B  Johnson and the Transformation of American Politics

Download or read book Lyndon B Johnson and the Transformation of American Politics written by John L. Bullion and published by Addison-Wesley Longman. This book was released on 2008 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: [This book] offers a close look at how Johnson handled the issues of civil rights, segregation, Vietnam, and an unruly economy, and demonstrates how these issues and events wore away Johnson's once robust idealism.-Back cover.

Book Forgotten Legacy

Download or read book Forgotten Legacy written by Benjamin R. Justesen and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2020-12-16 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Forgotten Legacy, Benjamin R. Justesen reveals a previously unexamined facet of William McKinley’s presidency: an ongoing dedication to the advancement of African Americans, including their appointment to significant roles in the federal government and the safeguarding of their rights as U.S. citizens. During the first two years of his administration, McKinley named nearly as many African Americans to federal office as all his predecessors combined. He also acted on many fronts to stiffen federal penalties for participation in lynch mobs and to support measures promoting racial tolerance. Indeed, Justesen’s work suggests that McKinley might well be considered the first “civil rights president,” especially when compared to his next five successors in office. Nonetheless, historians have long minimized, trivialized, or overlooked McKinley’s cooperative relationships with prominent African American leaders, including George Henry White, the nation’s only black congressman between 1897 and 1901. Justesen contends that this conventional, one-sided portrait of McKinley is at best incomplete and misleading, and often severely distorts the historical record. A Civil War veteran and the child of abolitionist parents, the twenty-fifth president committed himself to advocating for equity for America’s black citizens. Justesen uses White’s parallel efforts in and outside of Congress as the primary lens through which to view the McKinley administration’s accomplishments in racial advancement. He focuses on McKinley’s regular meetings with a small and mostly unheralded group of African American advisers and his enduring relationship with leaders of the new National Afro-American Council. His nomination of black U.S. postmasters, consuls, midlevel agency appointees, military officers, and some high-level officials—including U.S. ministers to Haiti and Liberia—serves as perhaps the most visible example of the president’s work in this area. Only months before his assassination in 1901, McKinley toured the South, visiting African American colleges to praise black achievements and encourage a spirit of optimism among his audiences. Although McKinley succumbed to political pressure and failed to promote equality and civil rights as much as he had initially hoped, Justesen shows that his efforts proved far more significant than previously thought, and were halted only by his untimely death.

Book American Legends

    Book Details:
  • Author : Charles River Charles River Editors
  • Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
  • Release : 2013-09-13
  • ISBN : 9781492716143
  • Pages : 72 pages

Download or read book American Legends written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes a list of LBJ's most colorful quotes, his inaugural address, and his statement announcing he would not seek reelection in 1968. *Includes pictures of Johnson and important people, places, and events in his life. *Discusses LBJ's personality and relationships with his most important contemporaries, including John and Bobby Kennedy. "The presidency has made every man who occupied it, no matter how small, bigger than he was; and no matter how big, not big enough for its demands." - Lyndon B. Johnson A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known. Of all the politicians who have left their mark on American history, few have had a political career or list of accomplishments and accolades that can even come close to rivaling Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson is one of only 4 Americans to serve as a House Rep, U.S. Senator, Vice President and President, and he made the most out of each experience. The hard-nosed Texas Democrat became one of the legendary strongmen in the Senate, mastering that political body from 1949-1961 and spending six years as Senate Majority Leader, two as Senate Minority Leader, and two as Senate Majority Whip. A fateful chain of events propelled then propelled Johnson from Capitol Hill to the White House. After Johnson's failed run for the Democratic nomination in 1960, winner John F. Kennedy chose Johnson as his running mate over his brother Bobby's objections. Kennedy figured Johnson's Texas roots would help balance Kennedy's decidedly Northeastern appeal, as well as adding a sense of age, experience and gravitas to the younger Kennedy's campaign. While this was all true and did indeed help Kennedy win the election in 1960, his assassination ultimately brought Johnson to the presidency. Kennedy has been nostalgically and fondly remembered for his youth, vigor and sense of unfinished potential, but it would be President Johnson who would bring much of the agenda to fruition. To the surprise of many, the Southern Democrat relied on his wealth of Senate experience and dogged determination to help push through an ambitious and progressive social agenda that formed the backbone of modern American society. Known as the Great Society, President Johnson's legislation included the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as the establishment of Medicare, Medicaid, environmental protection, and the "War on Poverty." Everything from the National Endowment for the Arts to the Environmental Protection Agency has its roots in Johnson's presidency. Had Johnson's presidency included just his domestic agenda, he would have unquestionably been one of America's greatest presidents. Unfortunately, as he was engineering a new social contract at home, he was ramping up American military participation in a tiny country thousands of miles away in Southeast Asia. For a man who accomplished so much at home, it's ironic and tragic that his presidency and legacy were permanently marred by his escalation in the costly and contentious Vietnam War, a military quagmire and public relations disaster that compelled Johnson not to run for reelection in 1968. American Legends: The Life of Lyndon B. Johnson chronicles the amazing life of the president, examines his unprecedented legislative accomplishments, and analyzes the controversial Vietnam War and Johnson's mixed legacy. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about LBJ like you never have before, in no time at all.

Book Lyndon s Legacy

Download or read book Lyndon s Legacy written by Frank L. Kluckhohn and published by . This book was released on 1964 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Lady Bird Johnson  Hiding in Plain Sight

Download or read book Lady Bird Johnson Hiding in Plain Sight written by Julia Sweig and published by Random House. This book was released on 2021-03-16 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A revelation . . . a book in the Caro mold, using Lady Bird, along with tapes and transcripts of her entire White House diary, to tell the history of America during the Johnson years.”—The New York Times The inspiration for the documentary film The Lady Bird Diaries, premiering November 13 on Hulu Perhaps the most underestimated First Lady of the twentieth century, Lady Bird Johnson was also one of the most powerful. In Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight, Julia Sweig reveals how indispensable the First Lady was to Lyndon Johnson’s administration—which Lady Bird called “our” presidency. In addition to advising him through critical moments, she took on her own policy initiatives, including the most ambitious national environmental effort since Theodore Roosevelt and a virtually unknown initiative to desegregate access to public recreation and national parks in Washington, D.C. Where no presidential biographer has understood Lady Bird’s full impact, Julia Sweig is the first to draw substantially on her White House diaries and to place her center stage. In doing so, Sweig reveals a woman ahead of her time—and an accomplished strategist and politician in her own right. Winner of the Texas Book Award • Longlisted for the PEN/Jacqueline Bogard Weld Award

Book Impeached

Download or read book Impeached written by David O. Stewart and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of the attempt to remove Andrew Johnson from the presidency. It demolishes the myth that Johnson's impeachment was unjustified.

Book Landslide

    Book Details:
  • Author : Jonathan Darman
  • Publisher : Random House
  • Release : 2014-09-23
  • ISBN : 0812994698
  • Pages : 493 pages

Download or read book Landslide written by Jonathan Darman and published by Random House. This book was released on 2014-09-23 with total page 493 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In politics, the man who takes the highest spot after a landslide is not standing on solid ground. In this riveting work of narrative nonfiction, Jonathan Darman tells the story of two giants of American politics, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, and shows how, from 1963 to 1966, these two men—the same age, and driven by the same heroic ambitions—changed American politics forever. The liberal and the conservative. The deal-making arm twister and the cool communicator. The Texas rancher and the Hollywood star. Opposites in politics and style, Johnson and Reagan shared a defining impulse: to set forth a grand story of America, a story in which he could be the hero. In the tumultuous days after the Kennedy assassination, Johnson and Reagan each, in turn, seized the chance to offer the country a new vision for the future. Bringing to life their vivid personalities and the anxious mood of America in a radically transformative time, Darman shows how, in promising the impossible, Johnson and Reagan jointly dismantled the long American tradition of consensus politics and ushered in a new era of fracture. History comes to life in Darman’s vivid, fly-on-the wall storytelling. Even as Johnson publicly revels in his triumphs, we see him grow obsessed with dark forces he believes are out to destroy him, while his wife, Lady Bird, urges her husband to put aside his paranoia and see the world as it really is. And as the war in Vietnam threatens to overtake his presidency, we witness Johnson desperately struggling to compensate with ever more extravagant promises for his Great Society. On the other side of the country, Ronald Reagan, a fading actor years removed from his Hollywood glory, gradually turns toward a new career in California politics. We watch him delivering speeches to crowds who are desperate for a new leader. And we see him wielding his well-honed instinct for timing, waiting for Johnson’s majestic promises to prove empty before he steps back into the spotlight, on his long journey toward the presidency. From Johnson’s election in 1964, the greatest popular-vote landslide in American history, to the pivotal 1966 midterms, when Reagan burst forth onto the national stage, Landslide brings alive a country transformed—by riots, protests, the rise of television, the shattering of consensus—and the two towering personalities whose choices in those moments would reverberate through the country for decades to come. Praise for Landslide “Richly detailed . . . Landslide is a vivid retelling of a tumultuous three years in American history, and Mr. Darman captures in full the personalities and motives of two of the twentieth century’s most consequential politicians.”—The New York Times “Novel and even surprising . . . Landslide deftly reminds readers that Johnson and Reagan both trafficked in grandiose oratory and promoted utopian visions at odds with the social complexity of modern America.”—The Washington Post “Riveting . . . Darman portrays [Johnson and Reagan] as polar opposites of political attraction. . . . Animated by the artful insight that they were men of disappointment headed toward an appointment with history . . . A tale about myths and a nation that believed them, about a world of a half century ago now gone forever.”—The Boston Globe “Alert to the subtleties of politics and political history, Darman, a former correspondent for Newsweek, nimbly explores delusion and self-delusion at the highest levels.”—The New York Times Book Review

Book The Forgotten First

Download or read book The Forgotten First written by Keyshawn Johnson and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The unknown story of the Black pioneers who collectively changed the face of the NFL in 1946. THE FORGOTTEN FIRST chronicles the lives of four incredible men, the racism they experienced as Black players entering a segregated sport, the burden of expectation they carried, and their many achievements, which would go on to affect football for generations to come. More than a year before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball, there was another seismic moment in pro sports history. On March 21,1946, former UCLA star running back Kenny Washington—a teammate of Robinson's in college—signed a contract with the Los Angeles Rams. This ended one of the most shameful periods in NFL history, when African-American players were banned from league play. Washington would not be alone in serving as a pioneer for NFL integration. Just months after he joined the Rams, thanks to a concerted effort by influential Los Angeles political and civic leaders, the team signed Woody Strode, who played with both Washington and Robinson at UCLA in one of the most celebrated backfields in college sports history. And that same year, a little-known coach named Paul Brown of the fledgling Cleveland Browns signed running back Marion Motley and defensive lineman Bill Willis, thereby integrating a startup league that would eventually merge with the NFL. THE FORGOTTEN FIRST tells the story of one of the most significant cultural shifts in pro football history, as four men opened the door to opportunity and changed the sport forever.