Despite a strain of political poison left over from the presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson, as well as tensions on the University of Texas campus about the ongoing Vietnam War, the LBJ Presidential Library was dedicated in windy, muggy conditions at 11:30 a.m. May 22, 1971.
Friends and enemies alike, including President Richard Nixon, gathered 50 years ago on what was then the eastern edge of the UT campus to marvel at the monolithic, marble-clad tower that held the presidential papers, library and museum, and its long, low-lying companion building, Sid Richardson Hall, which housed what would become the LBJ School of Public Affairs, Briscoe Center for American History and Benson Latin American Collection.