Image of a crowd of protestors carrying anti-LBJ signs in Dallas in 1960

The November 5, 1960 edition of The Dallas Morning News included a story on page 1A that describes this protest and Johnson's reaction in detail:

"LBJ CALLS PRO-NIXON FANS AT HIS RALLY "DISCOURTEOUS" - SENATOR JEERED AT DALLAS HOTEL - Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson with his wife Friday dismissed police guards and pushed their way through a howling, chanting, jeering pro-Nixon crowd which he later called 'frustrated, discourteous and desperate.' It took the smiling Johnson and grim-faced Lady Bird almost 30 minutes to inch their way through the Republican demonstrators from the front entrance of the Hotel Adolphus to the Grand Ballroom where he was greeted by 2,000 wildly cheering luncheon guests. The Nixon demonstrators, among them Congressman Bruce Alger of Dallas, first confronted Johnson when his motorcade arrived at the Baker Hotel."

- Lindsey Richardson, Curator of Collections

The individual holding the sign which reads "LBJ Sold Out to Yankee Socialists" is U.S. Congressman Bruce Alger (1918-2015). Alger was the first Texas Republican to sit in the U.S. House of Representatives since Reconstruction. During his ten years in office, 1955-65, he was considered one of the nation's most conservative lawmakers. 

Although Alger was certainly part of the Johnson protest outside the Adolphus Hotel on November 4, 1960 - just four days before the presidential election - he later denied that he participated in any of the pushing or spitting that allegedly took place as the Johnsons made their way across Commerce Street. He did shout at Lyndon Johnson, however, informing the Senate Majority Leader that he was unwelcome in the City of Dallas.

Democrats turned this Adolphus incident into political gold for the Kennedy-Johnson ticket. Within twenty-four hours of the demonstration, Democratic supporters were widely distributing handbills featuring a photograph of Congressman Alger with his protest sign, bearing the caption: "Dallas, Not Venezuela." This was a sly reference to Vice President Nixon's rocky visit to Caracas in 1958 when his car was attacked by anti-American demonstrators. It was a clever way of accusing all Republican demonstrators of being un-American without actually saying so. - Stephen Fagin, Curator