President Obama talks LBJ's legacy, civil rights

President Lyndon Johnson believed that Americans can build a fairer, more equal and freer society than the ones they inherited, President Barack Obama said April 10.

"He believed we make our own destiny," Obama said. "And in part because of him, we must believe it as well."

The president delivered a half-hour keynote address on Johnson's contributions to civil rights and the country's responsibility to continue his work at the Civil Rights Summit at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin.

He was joined by First Lady Michelle Obama. Singer Mavis Staples sang "We Shall Overcome" before U.S. Rep. John Lewis introduced the president.

In his address, Obama said Johnson's "Great Society" domestic policies—including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 and the Medicare Bill of 1965—were inspired by the Johnson's own experiences with poverty as a child and later as a teacher.

"Deprivation and discrimination -- these were not abstractions to Lyndon Baines Johnson," Obama said. "He knew that poverty and injustice are as inseparable as opportunity and justice are joined. So that was in him from an early age."

Obama praised the former president's mastery of politics and the legislative process. "He grasped like few others the power of government to bring about change," he said.

He also praised Johnson's desire to fight for what others deemed risky political moves.