rather it was his concern the politics of running a campaign could interfere with any opportunity to end the vietnam war. jones told the new york times, quote, as an active candidate, he, president johnson reasoned, he might miss or postpone an opportunity to achieve peace. what if we re late in the campaign and i might have have to make a decision that might result in a peace settlement but will be politically risky? i want my hands free to do what s necessary to deal with this thing. the party was left grappling on a candidate when they met nor the democratic national convention in chicago in late august 1968. but the most enduring images from that week were not the convention itself but from the streets outside. that s where more than 10,000 people from around the country gathered to protest the war in vietnam and they were met by 25,000 police officers, national guard members and army troops under orders from chicago mayor richard dailey.
and it colors the war on oh, yeah. but transportation part of what he s talking about. one thing we have to remember about lbj right now because this month, in 1965, my father joined a meeting at the white house that the president called to discuss how to take civil rights to the next level. right? and one of the things that happened in that meeting is that and my father had just been to south carolina on voting rights looking at how still 50% of blacks were still disenfranchised in south carolina, complaining to katz and beck that we weren t doing a sufficient amount when forced and that given the civil rights law of 1964 there was a powerful tool that the federal government had and still has today, which is to say we re going to take back those federal dollars p if you continue to segregate and discriminate. and one of the things that a clear deal, and i think we have to call out democrats and northern democrats on this, mayor dailey wanted to keep his anti-poverty prog
0 power was the beginning of something big because as president, lyndon johnson would go on to implement a policy agenda of social reform that he called the great society. and it would become the most sweeping transformation of american domestic policy since president franklin roosevelt s new deal. johnson laid out his vision of a great society in a 1964 commencement speech at the university of michigan. the great society rests on abundance and liberty for all. it demands an end to poverty and racial injustice to which we are totally committed in our time. during his time in office, president johnson engineered a policy plan that targeted the eradication of poverty, the advancement of racial equality, the restoration of american cities, the expansion of health care and the preservation of the environment. johnson s legislative agenda helped to revolutionize the role of the federal government and in working on a new book about lbj. and raul reyes, nbc latino contributor and columnis
giffords who also was there in april. this launch was scrubbed then. she s now returned there, arriving yesterday, watching her husband launch up toward the international space station. also, because this is, in fact, the last flight of 25 for the space shuttle endeavour, nbc s veteran correspondent jay barbary is there watching from the kennedy space center. jay, good to see you this morning. looks like a clean launch. it sure does, willie. it s going into orbit as it should be. everything is clean. and you are talking about this is the 165th flight. it s the 134th flight of the space shuttle. we had 31 flights begin with the mercury spacecraft gemini and apollo. guess who was with me some 50 years ago down here covering the missions when they first started? willie geist s father. yeah, down here with a guy named cronki cronkite, i believe. but everything is beautiful here today. we have about 500,000 here that are watching it go up into space today. and there will be on
california, are upset over a police department advertising campaign that mentions gangs. the police officers association has posted these billboards emblazoned with messages like, quote, gangs are hire, why aren t we? and, quote, many criminals, too few talks. oprah winfrey has a street of her own in chicago. mayor richard dailey has renamed a street oprah winfrey way. and police in california are looking for a burglar who stole several atms and buried them in the floor below a business. they were taken from a convenience store, a country club and a family entertainment center. it s been a crazy week for pilots and passengers alike, cockpits rushed, flights dive diverted, people messing with exit doors. we ll get the scoop from a flight crew veteran on what s going on. building up our wireless network all across america.