Lyndon B. Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, in Texas. Johnson grew up the son of a politician, Sam Ealy Johnson Jr., who was the member of the Texas legislature for eleven years. Despite being a politician, his father struggled to make enough money to support his family. Johnson worked throughout his youth to earn money for the family. His mother, Rebekah Baines Johnson, taught him to read at an early age. She was a journalist who had graduated from Baylor University.

Johnson went to local public schools and graduated from high school in 1924. He spent three years traveling around and working at odd jobs before going to college at the Southwest Texas State Teachers College. He graduated in 1930 and attended Georgetown University to study law from 1934 to 1935. However, he left the school without his law degree to pursue a career in politics.