Photo by Joe Lanane

Photo by Joe Lanane

Former First Daughter Luci Baines Johnson spoke May 7 at an Austin Community College luncheon about her father's legacy during the civil rights and voting rights movements.

Johnson, the younger daughter of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, was the keynote speaker at ACC's sixth annual Building Tomorrow's Leaders luncheon. Johnson used the occasion to compliment efforts within ACC's Center for Public Policy and Political Studies, the only such center of its kind nationally at a community college.

CPPPC attempts to educate and engage students in the political process. The center's goal is in line with the vision of Johnson's father, she said, in that a good government must begin with an enlightened electorate.

"Too few us even get an education on how to be good citizens," Johnson said. "That's what makes this center special—you are all learning how."

Much of her speech focused on the milestone achievements her father achieved during his presidency, particularly the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts, as well as his commitment to increased educational access.

"We began a fight that is not over, but we made very exciting strides," Johnson said.

She urged students to interview their grandparents and great grandparents to learn more about their own personal memories from the mid-1960s and learn how segregation and unequal access complicated the lives of many minorities. Without her father's efforts, Johnson said many of ACC's minority students, who make up 40 percent of the school's student body, may still not have access to higher education.

"Today, you can represent my father's hopes for tomorrow," she said.