Well, that was a desperate attempt to reject it that fell on it's face.
I'll contrast this with the alleged Nixon quote which claimed he said something similarly racist.
In Nixon's case, the interviewer claimed that Dean had told him this story in an interview, for a book he was writing. The author published this book at the time without citing the quote. He also did not announce this quote until after Dean died, which was over a decade after he published his book in the first place. Dean's family rejected the claim and everyone else in the Nixon cabinet rejected it too. Also, we have transcripts of Richard Nixon which show he didn't talk like this. The author claimed he had it recorded, and he admitted that his interviews with Dean were recorded both by audio tape and by his notes; and he refused to produce the notes or recordings.
That's not very credible. Yet, it's taken as a direct quote as if it isn't 2 layers of hearsay.
In this case, we have an author that didn't hide his notes, kept it in his book, and other people vouch that if LBJ didn't say those exact words, his use of the word "nigger" was commonplace enough that it probably would have happened.
In fact, Snopes' best argument against it is that LBJ passed the Civil Rights Act, which would be keeping in line with the point of the original quote.
If we wanted to make an indirect claim at why we don't think this is a real statement, the best I could argue is that most of the black vote at that time was already voting Democrat, specifically according to Goldwater who cited that the black vote had been locked up by the Dems since Roosevelt already. But, that doesn't refute the context. LBJ is claiming to lock the black vote, not gain it.
Actual Snopes "fact check" about that quote
Well, that was a desperate attempt to reject it that fell on it's face.
I'll contrast this with the alleged Nixon quote which claimed he said something similarly racist.
In Nixon's case, the interviewer claimed that Dean had told him this story in an interview, for a book he was writing. The author published this book at the time without citing the quote. He also did not announce this quote until after Dean died, which was over a decade after he published his book in the first place. Dean's family rejected the claim and everyone else in the Nixon cabinet rejected it too. Also, we have transcripts of Richard Nixon which show he didn't talk like this. The author claimed he had it recorded, and he admitted that his interviews with Dean were recorded both by audio tape and by his notes; and he refused to produce the notes or recordings.
That's not very credible. Yet, it's taken as a direct quote as if it isn't 2 layers of hearsay.
In this case, we have an author that didn't hide his notes, kept it in his book, and other people vouch that if LBJ didn't say those exact words, his use of the word "nigger" was commonplace enough that it probably would have happened.
In fact, Snopes' best argument against it is that LBJ passed the Civil Rights Act, which would be keeping in line with the point of the original quote.
If we wanted to make an indirect claim at why we don't think this is a real statement, the best I could argue is that most of the black vote at that time was already voting Democrat, specifically according to Goldwater who cited that the black vote had been locked up by the Dems since Roosevelt already. But, that doesn't refute the context. LBJ is claiming to lock the black vote, not gain it.