Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb__ A Tour of Presidential Gravesites - Brian Lamb [67]
One of the things Lyndon Johnson tried hardest to do was redress centuries of racial injustice. In December 1971, an obviously ailing former president attended a civil rights conference at the LBJ Library. In the audience were such giants of the movement as Thurgood Marshall, Roy Wilkins, Hubert Humphrey, and Earl Warren. His doctors urged him to stay away; if he had to go, by all means he should avoid the strain of public speaking. Being Lyndon Johnson, he overruled their objections. He had a valedictory message to deliver and it didn’t lack for point.
“Progress has been much too small; we haven’t done nearly enough,” Johnson told his countrymen. “To be black in white society is not to stand on level and equal ground. While the races may stand side by side, whites stand on history’s mountain and blacks stand in history’s hollow. Until we overcome unequal history, we cannot overcome unequal opportunity.”
It was his last public appearance. Among those filing by Johnson’s casket at the library six weeks later was a young, bearded man who on another day might have marched in protest of the Vietnam War. Bowing slightly before Lady Bird Johnson, he said simply, “My apologies.” Meanwhile, Harry Middleton assigned someone on the library staff to keep a careful count of the thirty-two thousand mourners who came to pay their respects. “I know that somewhere, sometime, President Johnson is going to ask me,” he explained.
—RNS
Richard Nixon
Buried: Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace, Yorba Linda, California
Thirty-seventh President - 1969-1974
Born: January 9, 1913, in Yorba Linda, California
Died: 9:08 p.m. on April 22, 1994, in New York, New York
Age at death: 81
Cause of death: Stroke
Final words: Unknown
Admission to Richard Nixon Library and
Birthplace: $9.95
Richard Nixon is the only U.S. president to resign his office. He won the presidency in 1968 on his second try, after narrowly losing the opportunity to succeed Dwight Eisenhower to John F. Kennedy in 1960.
The first Nixon administration focused much of its attention on world affairs, particularly the reduction of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Nixon visited China, the first U.S. president to do so, in an attempt to restore diplomatic relations with the Communist regime.
However, Nixon’s presidency is remembered for the aftermath of events in 1972 connected to his reelection campaign. Several members of his campaign staff were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate complex in Washington. When it was revealed that aides to the president had engaged in a series of illegal schemes, including burglary and wiretapping, a Senate committee was established to investigate. Several of the officials were later convicted for their roles in the Watergate affair.
Nixon’s monument reads, “The greatest title history can bestow is the title of peacemaker”
Tapes from the president’s own White House recording system confirmed that he was aware of the crimes and tried to hinder the investigation. In July 1974, the House Judiciary Committee issued three articles of impeachment against the president. He was charged with obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and failure to comply with congressional subpoenas. Rather than risk impeachment, Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974.
Richard and Pat Nixon returned to their home in San Clemente, California, hoping to escape the glare of publicity. In September 1974, a month after his resignation, Nixon was granted a full pardon by his successor, Gerald Ford. In 1980, the Nixons moved back to the east coast to be closer to their daughters and grandchildren. The former president wrote several bestselling books on foreign policy. As an elder statesman, he continued to travel abroad and to advise successive administrations on