January 14, 2014 – The remembrance of the 50th anniversary of historical events from the 1960s will continue this year with a now half century since 1964 when President Lyndon Johnson was elected in his own right.

After becoming the 36^th President of the United States following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963, Johnson moved swiftly on a number of legislative fronts.

On January 8, 1964, President Johnson delivered his State of The Union address which since has become known as the “War on Poverty” speech.

In response to the speech, the United Sates Congress would go on to pass the Economic Opportunity Act that created the Office of Economic Opportunity whose responsibility it would be to oversee the local use of federal monies against poverty.

Later that year Congress would pass the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which Johnson would sign into law on July 2, 1964.

Why there was little doubt that Johnson would be nominated at the Democratic Convention  held in Atlantic City , New Jersey it was still unknown in the weeks leading us to the convention who he would pick to be his vice presidential running mate.

A famous issue of Life Magazine from 1964 features a picture of 9 different Lyndon Johnson campaign buttons each picturing him with a different running mate.

There was a Lyndon Johnson Adlai Stevenson campaign button, a Lyndon Johnson Robert F. Kennedy campaign button, a Lyndon Johnson Eugene McCarthy campaign button, a Lyndon Johnson Robert McNamara campaign button and even a campaign button for the eventual winning ticket of 1964 a Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey campaign button.

Johnson’s opponent on the Republican side would be Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater. There would be an abundance of campaign buttons produced for both Johnson and Goldwater.

1964 Johnson Humphrey campaign buttons can be found with both pictures and word only pinbacks. Many Johnson presidential campaign buttons would features the slogan “All The Way With LBJ.”

Barry Goldwater campaign button would feature him with his vice presidential running Congressman Bill Miller. In addition to Goldwater Miller campaign buttons, many Goldwater campaign buttons would feature his trademark dark black glasses.

Johnson would go on to easily defeat Goldwater in the November election winning 44 states to only 6 for the man from Arizona.

While Goldwater was crushed in the Johnson landslide of 1964, Goldwater’s campaign has since become known as the moment that the modern Republican Party conservative movement was born.