1. Lyndon Johnson The Great Society By: Lara Cornelius

2. Beginning... Johnson took office hoping to carry out what Kennedy began. His top priorities were to reduce taxes and to guarantee civil rights. In 1964 he succeeded in passing the Civil Rights Bill. By that spring, he began to use the term “The Great Society” to describe his reform program.

3. Economics His most impactful Great Society program was his “War on Poverty”. It caused controversy and tested the limits of possible reform. The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 established the Office of Economic Opportunity which provided training for the poor and established community action programs. Examples : Head Start, Upward Bound, and VISTA. Johnson also pushed the Medicare program through congress. This provided medical care for the elderly and disabled under the Social Security system to get federal aid for their education.

4. ECONOMICS (PART II) Blacks were able to gain representation on community-governing boards and learn political skills. The Community Actions Programs (CAPs) and Education Act involved the poor directly in implementing programs to help low-income communities. There was a lot of opposition to many of Johnson’s ideas. - Local politicians felt threatened by programs that empowered the oppressed. - Others felt that the lazy and unproductive were being rewarded. Some Blacks had their hopes raised, but there were minimal gains and increased hatred from Whites.

5. A LOOK AT SPENDING.. Domestic Spending : $ 44.3 billion War on Poverty : $ 10 billion War in Vietnam : $ 140 billion

6. THE WAR IN VIETNAM In 1964, Johnson successfully pushed for the authority to escalate American involvement in Vietnam. By the end of 1966, more than 385,000 troops were stationed there and by 1968, more than 500,000. Black African Americans made up 10% of armed forces. This was due mainly to draft deferments for college and grad. students. They entered for two main reasons : patriotism and educational opportunities (ie. Project 100,000 - 136,000 of 340,000 new recruits were African Americans)

7. THE END OF IT ALL By the end of 1967, the US seemed to be moving towards racial polarization. After escalating the War in Vietnam and asking for a tax increases, the Great Society Programs met more resistance. In 1968, Johnson told the nation he would not seek renomination as President.