President Biden to speak at LBJ Library in Austin to commemorate Civil Rights Act signing

President Joe Biden is set to deliver a major speech on civil rights and democracy at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin next Monday, the same day the Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee.

The White House-sponsored event, which will commemorate the 60th anniversary of then-President Lyndon Johnson's signing of the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964, will be Biden's first trip to Texas' capital city since before his election in 2020.

The speech will be livestreamed via YouTube beginning at 12:30 p.m. and will include "other dignitaries" and "tribute performances," the LBJ Presidential Library announced Monday morning. Media will be allowed to attend, but no public tickets are available.

The announcement comes days after U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, became the first congressional Democrat to call on Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential campaign, drawing on the example of Johnson's decision to forgo a reelection campaign in 1968 in his statement.

"Under very different circumstances, (Johnson) made the painful decision to withdraw. President Biden should do the same," Doggett said.

Biden continues to be plagued by questions about his capacity to serve four more years in office after an ABC News interview Friday failed to substantially assuage concerns that arose from his disastrous performance at the recent presidential debate with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

The speech will give the president a chance to highlight differences between his administration and that of Trump, said Abhi Rahman, deputy communications director for the Democratic National Committee. It could also allow him to flip the script on the references to Johnson in connection with withdrawal from the presidential race.

"A lot of people are trying to use the Lyndon Johnson comparison as a negative thing," Rahman told the Statesman in a phone interview. "I think when it comes to civil rights, President Biden is trying to use this as a positive thing. ... For Texas Democrats in general, the resources have never been there, but the fight has always been there, and I think it's going to continue to be there until the state flips."

More: When Lloyd Doggett called on Biden to stand down, it was one old pro talking to another

The visit will come roughly a decade after then-President Barack Obama and former Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter attended the Civil Rights Summit at the LBJ Presidential Library to commemorate the Civil Rights Act’s 50th anniversary in 2014.

“We are honored to have President Biden at the LBJ Library to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act,” Mark Updegrove, president and CEO of the LBJ Foundation and a presidential historian, said in a Monday news release. “It is fitting that he returns to the Library to mark this milestone as our 46th President whose administration is committed to pursuing a ‘comprehensive approach to advancing racial equity for all.’ ”

Johnson, who hailed from the Hill Country town of Johnson City, "was not content to rest on his laurels" after signing the Civil Rights Act, convening a two-day Civil Rights Symposium at the LBJ Presidential Library eight years afterward, the library noted in the news release.

After the speech in Austin, Biden will travel to speak at the NAACP National Convention in Las Vegas on July 16 and make remarks at the UnidosUS conference in the same city. UnidosUS is a nonprofit organization that works to "eliminate barriers and create opportunities for" Latinos in the U.S.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: President Biden to speak at LBJ Library in Austin next week