1 / 27

LBJ & The Great Society

LBJ & The Great Society. LBJ Becomes President. Despite being virtually useless as a v-p, LBJ assumed the control of government quickly and effectively after JFK’s assass. He set out his ideas to continue JFK’s programs in his “Great Society” speech.

Download Presentation

LBJ & The Great Society

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. LBJ & The Great Society

  2. LBJ Becomes President • Despite being virtually useless as a v-p, LBJ assumed the control of government quickly and effectively after JFK’s assass. • He set out his ideas to continue JFK’s programs in his “Great Society” speech. • Major Goal: Abundance & freedom for all Ams by • Eradicating poverty • Ending racial injustice

  3. Kazakh Finger Food!

  4. Great Society Programs • LBJ continued the New Frontier idea of the Peace Corps, where Am college grads were trained to help developing countries • Grads spent 2 years abroad creating programs to better education, agriculture, health, industry & technology • LBJ also created the OEO to oversee other programs • Head Start, Upward Bound, Job Corps, & Neighborhood Youth Corps & VISTA all aimed at children and young adults

  5. Major Legislative Efforts • ’64-66, LBJ sent # of bills to Congress to create Great Society- focused on health & education • Dept of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) was created to oversee low-income housing • National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) offered grants to artists & the National Endowment for the Humanities gave grants to scholars • The Elementary & Secondary Ed Act (ESEA) was passed giving more $$ to schools • Higher Ed Act was passed giving financial aid for college • Medicare & Medicaid were est’d to provide health care for the elderly & disadvantaged

  6. Office of Econ Opportunity • The OEO was a large federal agency that was designed to oversee and guide various programs. • The OEO was the centerpiece of LBJ’s “War on Poverty” & was in charge of Head Start, Job Corps, & VISTA. • It’s budget was eventually 1.8 billion, but eventually many of its programs were assigned to other agencies- Head Start to Dept of Ed; Job Corps to Dept of Labor • By ’73, it was out of business

  7. Federal Food Assistance • The purpose of the program is to make sure that all Ams can receive a minimum diet of nutritionally balanced foods • JFK re-instituted the Fed Food Assistance Program (aka Food Stamps), but under LBJ it was expanded and made permanent (‘64) • 1st year it was made permanent it helped 500K, by ’70, it was at 4 mill, & by ’75, it was at 15 mill • Currently, FFA is called SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) • 76% of SNAP households included a child, an elderly person, or a disabled person. These vulnerable households receive 83% of all SNAP benefits

  8. Legal Aid • Legal Services (now Legal Aid) program was designed to help poor & disadvantaged with civil legal services. • The Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) administered the program & it also aimed to change laws which were unfair to their clients. • Make laws simpler & more accessible to the poor • Fight laws that punished the poor • By the late ’90s, this program had est’d 260 local programs and helped more than 4 mill/year

  9. The Job Corps • Job Corpswas a program also overseen by the OEO- it’s goal was to train disadvantaged youth b/t 16-24 • Job Corps est’d training centers all over the country. • Enrollees received tech training, learned social skills, & when necessary, basic educational skills(reading & writing) • In ’67, JC operated 123 centers- helping 42K, since then almost 2 mill have been helped by JC

  10. Head Start • Head Start was an educational program for poor & disadvantaged children • Main goal was to improve school performance • They enrolled poor & disadvantaged children in pre-kindergarten programs • Provided hot meals & immunizations for children • In its first year, it helped 500K. • By late ’90s, +800K • Since it’s beginning, +17 mill kids have been helped

  11. VISTA • VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) was a domestic version of the Peace Corps. • VISTA workers lived and worked in poverty-stricken areas throughout the US to improve living standards. • After 6 weeks of training, college grads taught English, office skills, set up food co-ops, gave legal advice, & set up youth clubs • Eventually, VISTA was incorporated into Clinton’s AmeriCorps program- increasing its budget & popularity- by 2006, +200K Ams had volunteered in this program

  12. the Great Society’s legacy • Millions of Ams’ hopes were raised at the ideas being presented (racial equality, econ prosperity) • LBJ’s programs meant a tremendous amount of fed $$ at a time when the US was spending increasing amounts of $$ in Vietnam • (2 billion for War on Poverty; 22 billion for War in Vietnam) • W/i 2 years, the $$ needed for the programs had dried up • Despite cutbacks, many of the programs cont’d and are still seen today.

More Related