LBJ's Great Society
When Lyndon B. Johnson became president following the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963, he committed himself to pushing through an ambitious slate of anti-poverty and civil rights legislation.
After succeeding with these efforts in 1964 and then being re-elected in November 1964, Johnson redoubled his efforts starting with his State of the Union address on Jan. 4, 1965 — 60 years ago Saturday.
The 'War on Poverty'
In his State of the Union address on Jan. 8, 1964, Johnson declared “an unconditional war on poverty in America.” As his plans for conducting that war took shape, he began to speak in larger terms. “We will build a Great Society,” he told a gathering at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, on May 7. “It is a society where no child will go unfed, and no youngster will go unschooled.”
Emboldened by his sizable 15 million popular vote win in the 1964 election, Johnson told Congress in his next State of the Union address on Jan. 4, 1965: “We are only at the beginning of the road to the Great Society. Ahead now is a summit where freedom from the wants of the body can help fulfill the needs of the spirit.
“We built this Nation to serve its people. We want to grow and build and create, but we want progress to be the servant and not the master of man. We do not intend to live in the midst of abundance, isolated from neighbors and nature, confined by blighted cities and bleak suburbs, stunted by a poverty of learning and an emptiness of leisure.
“The Great Society asks not how much, but how good; not only how to create wealth but how to use it; not only how fast we are going, but where we are headed.”
Some of The Components of The Great Society
- July 2, 1964: The Civil Rights Act banned discrimination based on race and gender in employment and ended segregation in all public facilities.
- Aug. 20, 1964: The Economic Opportunity Act created the Office of Economic Opportunity aimed at attacking the roots of American poverty.
- Among the provisions of that act was the creation of Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) as a domestic Peace Corps in which volunteers in state or local agencies were set up to perform duties to combat poverty.
- Another component was the Job Corps, which provided basic education and work training for young men and women ages 16 to 21.
- Another component of that legislation was Head Start, a preschool program aimed at helping disadvantaged students.
- Aug. 31, 1964: Food Stamp Act made official a program put in place in 1961 to improve levels of nutrition among low-income families.
- April 11, 1965: Elementary and Secondary Education Act provided funding for professional development, instructional materials and other resources for public schools.
- July 30, 1965: Medicare was created to offset the costs of health care for the nation's elderly. Medicaid did the same for those with limited income and resources.
- Aug. 6, 1965: Voting Rights Act banned literacy tests and other methods commonly used — especially in the South — to discourage African Americans from voting.
- Aug. 10, 1965: Housing and Urban Development Act provided nearly $8 million to construct housing for low and middle-income families.
- Sept. 29, 1965: National Endowment for the Arts used public money to fund artists and galleries.
- Oct. 3, 1965: Immigration Act ended discriminatory quotas based on ethnic origin.
Has It Been Effective?
That depends on the political leanings of the people you ask. “In the ’60s, we waged a war on poverty,” President Ronald Reagan told a 1987 gathering on the White House lawn. “Poverty won.”
Critics point out the enormous chunk of the annual federal budget that fund programs that started out as pieces of LBJ’s Great Society and complain that its provisions decrease one’s incentive to work.
Supporters point out the improvements to American life and culture that were spurred by the Great Society. The War on Poverty was effective, they say, but didn’t go far enough. More could — and perhaps should — be done today, they say.
Poverty in The U.S. over The Past 64 Years
The percent of the U.S. population living in poverty is about half of what it was when the U.S. Census Bureau began compiling such data in 1959.
