WITH THE PASSING of Norman Thomas, America loses one of its most eloquent speakers, finest writers, and most creative thinkers.
Mr. Thomas was once asked what he considered to be his greatest achievements. With characteristic modesty, he replied, "To live to be my age and feel that one has kept the faith, or tried to . . . to be able to sleep at night with reasonable satisfaction."
Norman Thomas kept the faith. He was a humane and courageous man who lived to see many of the causes he championed become the law of the land.
Note: Norman M. Thomas, leader of the Socialist Party from 1926 to 1952, died at the age of 84 on December 19 at a nursing home in Huntington, New York.
The President's statement was released at Bethesda Naval Medical Center.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President on the Death of Norman Thomas. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/236402