The Way Back: Mr. President

Seven months after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, entered the city that would have been the next stop in Kennedy’s Texas Tour. President Johnson arrived at The University of Texas at Austin on a muggy May day to deliver the Commencement address to the graduating Longhorns of ’64. Johnson spoke with candor and humility to the nearly 2,000 seniors about the weight of their futures and the goals of his presidency. 

“Tonight, it is not just the eyes of Texas which watch you,” Johnson said. “The eyes of the nation, the eyes of millions in faraway lands, the eyes of all who love liberty are upon you. You cannot get away.”  

The sole image of his address can be found in the 1964 Cactus yearbook, sandwiched between two frames: one of folks slipping in the rain on their way to the Austin Municipal Auditorium (now the Long Center for the Performing Arts) where the ceremony was held, and the other from the same night of the Main Terrace in front of the UT Tower, deserted and supple from the showers.  

Today, UT commencement speakers’ speeches live in the University repositories through videos, transcripts, and various photographs. Snapped by a Longhorn Band member, likely on an unauthorized 6x6 camera, this image of President Johnson encapsulates the evening in a single frame: the burnt-orange Longhorn emblem, an acclaimed Commencement speaker donning a cap and gown, and the band ready to play the school song.  

The Longhorn band plays “The Eyes of Texas” at every University-Wide Commencement. Johnson evoked the song throughout his speech—saying he had heard it played recently at an event in Washington, D.C.—to charge the graduates with the responsibility of change: “Do not think you can escape them until you have brought us to the early morn of a nation without rancor and a world without fear.”  

Johnson would go on to affirm the importance of education and unity by signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Higher Education Act in 1965—legislation that still impacts the Longhorns who will walk the stage this May.  

“The choice is yours,” Johnson said. “The power to shape the future is in your hands. The path is clear. It is the path of understanding and the path of unity.”  

CREDIT: 1964 Cactus yearbook