AUSTIN, Texas — Since 1971, the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library has called Austin home.

What You Need To Know

  • President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965, setting the table for what we now consider affirmative action

  • Now — 60 years later — President Donald Trump has rescinded Johnson’s executive action on his first day back in the White House and replaced it with a new executive order titled “Ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity”

  • St. Mary’s University law professor Albert Kauffman fears the rollback of affirmative action in the workplace and institutions of higher education could have an impact on the accessibility created after the civil rights movement

“Essentially, it’s the repository of the record for Lyndon Johnson,” said Mark Updegrove, president and CEO of the LBJ Foundation. “45 million documents, 650,000 photographs. This is where you come to study the presidency and life of Lyndon Johnson.”

The presidential historian highlighted Johnson’s role in civil rights after President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

“LBJ would go on to champion the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” Updegrove said. “The Immigration Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. These are landmark laws.”

The 36th U.S. president took things a step further when he introduced affirmative action.

“[He] signed an executive order in 1965 ensuring that there would be no discrimination based on race, color, [or] creed of ethnic origin for federal contractors,” Updegrove said.  

Two years later, that order was amended to include women. Now — 60 years later — President Donald Trump has rescinded Johnson’s executive action on his first day back in the White House and replaced it with a new executive order titled “Ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity.”

“It’s existed all these decades until now and why shouldn’t it exist,” Updegrove said. “It really embodies what is our most basic creed as Americans — all men are created equal.”

In 2023, a historic Supreme Court decision changed affirmative action in higher education, ending universities' ability to consider race in the admissions process.

“And you can give points if they are African American, Latino, or female or disabled,” said Albert Kauffman, a law professor at St. Mary’s University. “That I think will no longer be in effect. But universities are still going to have to try to have diverse student bodies.”

Kauffman has practiced civil rights law for decades. He says in the 70s, with hopes of creating a more inclusive society, leaders on both sides of the aisle supported affirmative action policies.

“Lyndon Baines Johnson did some, and so did Richard Nixon,” Kauffman said. “Richard Nixon started the first one that opened up, required affirmative action in employment in the unions.”

With the current debate surrounding taxpayer-funded diversity, equity and inclusion programs, Kauffman says federal agencies like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission still exist to enforce federal laws concerning employment discrimination over race, gender and age. And without Congress changing laws, executive orders don’t have much power. 

“Congress passed laws saying you can’t discriminate in education; you can’t discriminate in employment; can’t discriminate in public accommodations. All these bills were passed, and those things are still the law,” Kauffman said.

Kauffman fears the rollback of affirmative action in the workplace and institutions of higher education could have an impact on the accessibility created after the Civil Rights Movement.

“We had these programs that were meant to bring in minority communities, now they’re getting rid of them,” Kauffman said. “So, there could be a feeling among some that this is a concerted effort to keep us out.”