LBJ: I Want Y’All

LBJ: I Want Y’All

This anti-war poster is a surviving relic of an original street production circa 1966–67 by an unknown artist from a small press that utilizes the traditional iconic recruitment poster featuring Uncle Sam pointing at young men with the advisory: “I Want You!” What worked to stoke patriotic fervor in the 1940s and 50s was creating deep social anxiety by the mid-1960s, after JFK was assassinated in Dallas and President Lyndon Baines Johnson kicked the war in Vietnam into high gear in 1965, ramping up the draft of what eventually became more than 2.2 million young American men. By 1966–67, public opposition to the war in Vietnam was growing, as was resistance to the draft, which disproportionately affected America’s working-class communities of all ethnic backgrounds. As opposition increased, counterculture street artists began adding their talents to the social pushback, and small presses around the country began to crank out limited-edition poster campaigns such as this one, which mocked LBJ with its use of the Texan’s southern colloquialism “Y’all” in place of “You,” a not-so-veiled reference to the president’s perceived lack of educational credentials when contrasted with the Ivy League stature of the preceding Kennedy Administration and its airy allusions to Camelot. This type of large-format poster was typically found in the emerging head shops, independent record stores, and other hippie outlets catering to counterculture consumers.

Dimensions: Twenty-three inches horizontally, Twenty-nine inches vertically (23 x 29”)

Condition: Aged and with some damage/tears in the corners, overall fair to almost good.