Lady Bird Johnson Found Her Voice By Overcoming Her ‘Terror of Oratory’

Guest Column by Melody Lehn

Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson defends her husband’s civil rights policies and garners support for him in the South during the 1964 presidential campaign. (Credit: Corbis/Getty Images)

Beginning in high school, Lady Bird Johnson suffered from severe public speaking anxiety. The idea of giving a speech left Johnson with what one journalist called a “terror of oratory.” So great was this terror that Johnson expressed relief when her grade point average slipped just enough to place her out of range for the valedictorian or salutatorian honor, both of which would have required a commencement speech. Biographer Jan Jarboe Russell writes that Johnson later remarked, “I had enough pride to want to amount to something, but not enough to pay the price to make a speech.”

Johnson was certainly not alone. An unusually high number of Americans—up to 75%, according to some studies—report experiencing some degree of apprehension about the prospect of addressing a public audience, defending arguments, and…