By the start of the 1960s, most Americans had in view another emerging Gilded Age. The charming John F. Kennedy turned out to be a president that the United States needed to see. He was in his abilities as a president and a man. His poise looked to establish the tone for the next decade. However, that Gilded Age never arrived. In contrast, by late 1960s the nation seemed to be on the brink of collapse. During JFKs’ presidential campaign commenced he established an ambitious domestic agenda exceeding Truman’s New Deal and called it “New Frontier,” a compendium of laws and restructurings that could remove inequality and discrimination in the United States. However, the New Frontier contended immediately with the refusal by a Congressional Democratic majority group of Southerners who despised the plan and did everything possible to block it.
By 1964, after president Kennedy was murdered – Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson had to run politics and enact his own programs of reforms. In the same year, Johnson stated that he would make the United States into A Grand Society in which poverty and ethnic prejudice had no place. It would appear he embodied Kennedy’s philosophy of a better America. He established a measure of programs that would give the poor minority an opportunity to pursue happiness without receiving benefits from the government. The programs established Medicare and Medicaid, which benefited senior citizens and help low-income families to afford health care, In fact,
During Johnson’s presidency, the federal government significantly extended its domestic responsibilities in attempt to transform the nation to what Johnson called the “Great Society,” in which poverty and racial intolerance ceased to exist. A previously unsurpassed amount of legislation was passed during this time; numerous laws were passed to protect the environment, keep consumers safe, reduce unfairness in education, improve housing in urban areas, provide more assistance to the elderly with health care, and other policies to improve welfare. Johnson called for a “War on Poverty,” and directed more funds to help the poor; government spending towards the poor
America stands for equality, freedom, and choice, but upon looking into the history behind America the everlasting struggle of racism, bigotry, and inequality are revealed. Through the 1950s to the 1970s, the fight for civil rights by African Americans was prominent throughout America. Schools, restaurants, and all public facilities were segregated, African Americans were blocked from voting through literacy tests and poll taxes, and The KKK, a white supremacist group, would lynch African American men. The need for the immediate cease of these practices and the desire for equality gave way to the Civil Rights Movement. Leaders and groups arose from this movement, such as Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and the Black Panther Party. The overall goal was to achieve rights but there were two significantly different methods of achieving this goal, non-violent civil disobedience and “black power”. The shift from non-violent civil disobedience to “black power” was caused by the emotional toll of being complacent during personal attack and the truth that immediate change calls upon the use of force, and the result of the shift was the further spread of violence.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Lyndon B. Johnson demonstrated unimaginable leadership skills in an effort to accomplish their respective agendas. Through the use of moral leadership, King would rise to become the head of the Civil Rights Movement by means of civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance. MLK began as a Baptist Minister, but after seeing the difference he could make in the world, decided to stand up for what he felt was right. Johnson, on the other hand, used political leadership in order to make a name for himself as President of the United States. LBJ was willing to do whatever it took to accomplish his goals, even if it meant going against the Southern Democrats who had elected him to political office. One of these risks
In 1963, with the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson ascended to the presidency. Johnson, a democrat, had enormous ambitions to expand the role of the federal government in American’s lives like FDR had done. The nation was in shock and Johnson rode the wave to have the martyred president’s “New Frontier” agenda passed into law. As a former majority leader in the Senate, he used his know-how to continue to churn bills one after another through Congress. Most notable among them was the Civil Rights Act of 1964: a landmark in the fight for equality. Johnson’s other bills were part of a declared war against poverty, and these would come to be called a part of his “Great Society” harkening back to FDR’s “New Deal” in both
The third chapter focuses on health care and education. Johnson felt that all people should be entitled to an education and healthcare. He signed the Medicare and Medicaid programs in 1965 which provided funding for health care to people. These got overwhelming public support, most
A former Majority Leader in the Senate, LBJ was able to maneuver legislation through Congress that others had been unable to.
The purpose of Medicare was to provide federal aid to the elderly for medical expenses regardless if they were on welfare or not. Medicaid was created to give medical assistance to welfare recipients and other poverty-stricken people. Another thing that the Johnson administration did in attempt to conquer poverty was the Economic Opportunity act of 1964. The purpose of this act was not only to expand old programs, but to introduce new ones that will help. In an address to congress in 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson affirms that this act would benefit underprivileged Americans continue their education and develop skills that will help them find good jobs and eventually escape from poverty (Doc B). President Johnson was dedicated to abolishing segregation within schools, the workplace and in public. The United States still had a lot to do to deal with racial and gender inequality issues. As Stokely Carmichael said in “What We Want” on September 22nd 1966, African-American families were enduring issues such as unemployment, starvation and murder. However, despite these hardships,
President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society was a set of social, political, and domestic programs put in place between 1964 and 1965, in response to the country’s quickly fading post-war prosperity. It strived to reduce social inequalities (especially racial discrimination) and boost the formerly thriving economy. The Great Society encompassed virtually all social policy sections, like civil rights, poverty and housing, education, health, welfare, arts and culture, transportation, environment, rural development, and labor. With such an ambitiously large program to follow, Johnson’s Great Society was bound to have a few flaws, and its success wasn’t guaranteed. It did, however, lead to several major social changes that revolutionized the United
For most of the ‘60s, America had liberal Democratic administrations. In 1961, Democrat John F. Kennedy became president. As part of his election campaign, Kennedy announced his New Frontier domestic program. During his presidency, he was not able to implement his promises successfully. “Without a clear Democratic majority in Congress he was unable to increase federal aid to education, provide health insurance for the aged, create a cabinet-level department of urban affairs, or expand civil rights” (Tindall and Shi 1050). His successor Johnson, committed to New Deal Democratic Liberalism, launched a War on Poverty and the so-called Great Society, a large array of social reform programs. However, since the US expanded its involvement in the Vietnam War, federal funds that were initially planned to be used for the War on Poverty, were instead used to cover the high war expenses (Tindall and Shi 1045). Many Americans lost their confidence in the liberal Democratic government and highly criticized the policies of the Kennedy and Johnson. Even though several legislative accomplishments can be ascribed to these two presidents, the criticism usually outweighed.
During 1959, the percentage of the nonwhite population below the poverty level was at 53.3 percent, at the end of President Johnson’s term, the percentage was at 29.5 percent; this trend of declining poverty was also seen in the white population (Document 7). President Johnson wasn’t a president of just the nonwhite groups, he was also a champion of the poor and this chart shows that consistency of President Johnson’s policy towards both the white, blacks, and other minorities. Movements by Johnson such as the creation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development sought to provide affordable federal housing to the poor. Additionally, President Johnson also sought to create a minimum wage system that provided workers with a (semblance of a) steady income. One of the main things that President Johnson has done was create the Community Agency Action (CAA) to help provide economic opportunity to local residents. Although this program led to the division in the Democratic party over disagreement over the allocations of funds, this program embodied President Johnson’s concept of being directly involved in the welfare of the people. Debates in the government under the Great Society program fought not only to help the poorer but also as to how the funds are spent to help the poor the most (compared to previous incidents of government officials lining their own
In the 1960s, America was in a realm of turmoil and upheaval. During President Kennedy’s term, there was a rise of race riots, sexual and drug revolutions and many anti-war protests. Upon President Kennedy’s assassination, President Johnson came into office with a plan to “correct” society. President Johnson constructed programs to help aid the poor and elderly with medical costs, food stamps, along with aid for education which all came to be known as part of the Great Society programs. Though he did join the United States in the Vietnam War and was unable to navigate out of it, his success in dealing with social, economic and political issues are overshadowed.
Lyndon Johnson was persuaded that liberal patriotism and the force of the government could change society. His confidence developed out of his energetic encounters with destitution levels in Texas, his political apprenticeship amid the New Deal, and his longing to go even further than Roosevelt’s legacy. When he became president in November 1963, after John F. Kennedy’s demise, Johnson acquired the early initiatives to deal with destitution that the Kennedy organization had been considering for some time now. With high energy and extensiveness, Johnson announced a war on poverty in 64 and pressed enactment through Congress to build up the Office of Economic Opportunity. In his speech, LBJ traces his vision and objectives for “The Great Society”,
As part of president Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society”, which focused on improving the quality of life among all Americans, he initiated the War on Poverty during the 1960s. The War on Poverty was built by using government funding to improve poverty-stricken areas of the country and to start “...a new food stamp program, giving poor people greater choice in obtaining food, and rent supplements that provided alternatives to public housing projects for some poor families.(Roark, Pg.936). Johnson also focused in improving education for children and also job training for adults. In addition, two major programs were produced after The War on Poverty was established, which were Medicare and Medicaid. These programs helped
The speaker of the first speech is John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the United States. President Kennedy was instrumental in improving relations with the USSR and improving civil rights in the US. He is seen as one of the greatest presidents America has ever had.
ohn F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson were thrown into the caldron of executive US politics on January 20th 1961 having been elected on a single presidential/vice presidential ticket. As progressive-liberals, their incumbency oversaw a period of substantial domestic and international change that has continued to shape America to this day. Historical assessments of each President are wide-ranging. Historians such as Robert Dallek, author of ‘J.F.K. - An Unfinished Life’, conclude that Kennedy’s premiership was one of ‘small successes and big failures’. Dallek laments JFK’s failed ‘New Frontier’ domestic program which promised federal funding towards education, medical care for the elderly, funding towards poorer state government and government intervention to aid the recession as leaving ‘a want of landmark legislation’. Conversely Public opinion of Kennedy remains very strong however. Lyndon Johnson on the other hand divides historical opinion to a broader extent. Whereas Dallek concludes that Kennedy was a man of ‘small successes and big failures’, Johnson was an exponent of ‘great achievement and painful failure, of lasting gains and unforgettable losses’. According to John Kentleton his domestic ‘Great Society’ left ‘something of Lincoln’s greatness within his grasp’ but believes that ‘Johnson’s presidency ended in failure’; a conclusion drawn from the military conflict in Vietnam and endless logistical problems with his domestic programs. This essay will argue that despite