2 Johnson's great society, 1964-1968

Question 1

aims for johnsons great society:

Answer 1

• end poverty
• racial equality
• educational reform
• modern housing
• the end of urban decay
• a renewed sense of community
• environmentalims
• peace with other nations
• 75% approval rating

Question 2

civil rights laws

Fair Housing Act 1968

Answer 2

• intergrated housing
• white people opposed because black movement into white neighbourhoods would lower property values
• congress shamed into it? because of MLKs assassination
• prohibited discrimination in the sale or rental of housing

Question 3

civil rights laws

Johnson’s achievements: the executive order of 1965

Answer 3

• required institutions recieving federal funding to employ non-whites
• liberals/conservatives praised/criticised it
• racism continued, but legislation, affirmative policies, war on porverty etc helpd

Question 4

civil rights laws

Economic Opportunity Act 1964

Answer 4

established a new office of economic opportunity to coordinate the war on poverty

Question 5

civil rights laws

what did Johnson tell congress in February 1965?

Answer 5

• 44 anti poverty programmes, 6 more to come
• 53 jobs corps centres providing training
• 95,000 adults enrolled in basic education programmes
• 4m+ recieving aid to families with dependent children benefits
• loads more but i aint writing all that :,)

Question 6

civil rights laws

Johnsons achievements: 2 acclaimed programmes?

Answer 6

1. head start:enabled pre-school children to catch up before school started, nearly 1m disadvabtaged children enrolled
2. upward bound: linked higher education institututions to poorer students with potential. 50,000 disadvantaged students participated each year under johnson

Question 7

civil rights laws

criticisms of johnson’s achievemnets

Answer 7

• cost more to put ghetto youth into the job corps than into harvard
• war on poverty was underfunded (say the liberals in unison) congress and taxpyares would not have agreed to further expenses tho
• Johnson did not eradicate poverty. Eg. 1/3 of non-white families still lived below the poverty line, with unemployment and infant mortality rates almost 2x that of whites.

Question 8

education

1964: Johnson highlighted the problems….

there are 4

Answer 8

1. 54m americans had never finished high school
2. 8m had under 5 years of schooling
3. 100,000 high school graduates with proven ability could not afford college
4. schools were overcrowded and run down, with bad teachers

Question 9

education

what did johnson persuade congress to spend on education, how?

Answer 9

$8 billion. (double federal expenditure)
- he said america spent ‘seven times as much on a youth that has gone bad’ as one who had stayed in school

Question 10

education

the elementary and secondary education act 1965 (ESEA)

problems, successes

Answer 10

• 6.7m poor children benefitted
• in 1985 the National Institute of Education estimated half the spending had gone to children above the poverty line
• the president seemed preoccupied, and paid little attention to the practice of the legislation.

Question 11

education

Johnsons achievements

Answer 11

• nmillions of children benefitted
• % of those with a diploma rose
• shortage of teachers ended
• new buildings constructed
• accessibility to college increased

Question 12

Housing and urban problems

departmentof housing and urban development 1965

Answer 12

coordinated programmes to combat housing shortages in inner cities

Question 13

Housing and urban problems

Demonstration cities Act 1966

Answer 13

• chicago, detroit, houston, LA, philly, Washington became ‘model cities’ in which the government would clear slums
• severely underfunded ($1.2b), the New York Times predicted NYC alone needed $6b.
• members of congress also all demanded something for their particular cities, so the funding was spread far too thinly to be effective

Question 14

Housing and urban problems

omnibus housing Act 1965

Answer 14

financed $8b worth of low and moderate income housing in the ghettos
- Johnson persuaded builders to construct reasonably priced housing, but ghettos remained dire
- (Fair Housing Act 1968…)

Question 15

Housing and urban problems

Johnsons achievements

Answer 15

• 4/5 of detroit ghetto rioters arrested in 1967 had jobs paying over $120 weekly, suggesting it was housing over poverty, but:
• taxpayers did not want to fund large scale improvements
• minority housing problem too great for any one president to solve

Question 16

Medicare, Medicaid, 1965

debates over federal financial support for healthcaer

Answer 16

• democrats always advocated for it
• republicans insisted it was consumerist

Question 17

Medicare, Medicaid, 1965

social security act 1965

Answer 17

1. medicare: fully funded health insurance for over 65s, and the disabled regardless of income or existing medical conditions
2. 1966 19m were enrolled in medicare
3. meidcaid gave medical assistance to those who could not afford essential medical service
4. within a year, medicaid increased the amount spent by the governments on healthcare for poorer citizens from £1.3b to over £2b

Question 18

Medicare, Medicaid, 1965

Johnsons achievements

Answer 18

• medicare lifted millions of elderly americans out of poverty
• so popular no president opposed it

Question 19

Medicare, Medicaid, 1965

drawbacks of medicare

Answer 19

• gaps in coverage: eyeglasses
• way more $$$ than johnoson anticipated. the hospitals were allowed to set fees, to total cost rocketed from $3.5b to $144b in 1993, 5-15% of the GNP
• problem of reasonably priced care for most americans remained

Question 20

the environment

wilderness act 1964

Answer 20

• protected 9.1m acres of federal land

Question 21

the environment

highway beautification act 1965

Answer 21

• decreased billboard advertising

Question 22

the environment

national parks?

Answer 22

• 50 new areas gto be administrated by the national park service + expanding existing ones
• Guadalupe Mountains National Park Texas, North Cascades, Redwood

Question 23

the environment

water quality and clean air acts of 1965 + clean water restoration act 1966

Answer 23

• gave government authority to act forcefully against water and air pollution
• triggered great debate over scale of gov intervention
• but regulations remained, suggesting advantages outweighed disadvtantages