Non-Fiction: Lady Bird Johnson’s Trailblazing 1964 Campaign Train

Lectures and conversations with historians, authors, and thinkers. In October 1964, Lady Bird Johnson made history as the first presidential spouse to take a leading role on the campaign trail—and she did it boldly, facing danger and shaking up the status quo. Aboard a custom, nineteen-car train called the Lady Bird Special, she traversed eight southern states to support Lyndon B. Johnson’s re-election bid amid heightened tensions following the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Author Shannon McKenna Schmidt recounts this daring 1,682-mile journey, highlighting Lady Bird’s courageous leadership, the women who helped make this monumental undertaking possible, and how their strategy and civility impacted a pivotal moment in American history. Shannon McKenna Schmidt is the author of You Can’t Catch Us: Lady Bird Johnson’s Trailblazing 1964 Campaign Train and the Women Who Rode with Her . Her other books include The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back , which she previously presented at the Bryant Park Reading Room. Produced in partnership with The New York Historical July 1, 2026 – September 9, 2026 Wednesdays, 7pm-8pm July 1: How the Declaration of Independence Made America July 8: How American Presidents Governed Their Money July 15: The Shocking Crimes That Shaped Abraham Lincoln July 22: Angelica Schuyler in a Time of Revolution July 29: The Moment That Changed the Women’s Movement August 5: Lady Bird Johnson’s Trailblazing 1964 Campaign Train August 12: The Fight to Expose the Radical Right August 19: Samuel Alito and the Triumph of the Conservative Legal Movement August 26: The Partisan Life of Abraham Lincoln September 2: An Oral History of 9/11 September 9: The Triangle Shirtwaist Tragedy and the Origins of Modern Charity