December 31, 1963
President Lyndon Johnson escorted Gerri Wittington, an African-American and one of his personal secretaries in the White House, to the New Year’s Eve Ball at the University of Texas Faculty Club (known as the Forty Acres Club) in Austin, Texas. The club had been racially segregated until that moment. Everyone in the crowded room was reportedly stunned. One person leaned over the Bill Moyers, one of Johnson’s top aides, and whispered, “Does he know what he is doing?” Moyers replied, “he always knows what he is doing.” The club officially integrated in 1965. (The letter to the Daily Texan was printed on January 14, 1964.)
