Johnson: pursuit of great society Flashcards
Programmes of great society: 1964
- Economic Opportunity Act
- Urban Mass Transportation Act
- Omnibus Housing Act
- Civil Rights Act
- Wilderness Protection Act
Civil Rights Act
- 1964
- ban on exclusion from restaurants, stores and other public places
- mixed education
- voting rights
- no racial, sexual or religious discrimination would be lawful
Civil Rights Act: Successes
- offered Black Americans equality and brought an end to legal segregation
- gave the power to withhold federal funding from any state that was not complying
- Political triumph for Johnson to get it passed through congress
Civil Rights Act: Failures
- voting rights not protected
- de facto, discrimination remained
- 68% of southern black school children still attended segregated schools in 1968
Voting Rights Act
- 1965
- outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted
Voting Rights Act: Successes
- black voters gained a voice in who represented them in local, state, and federal government
- 1965-69: No. of black Americans elected to office increased sixfold
- Charles Evers: first black man to be elected mayor of Mississippi
Voting Rights Act: Failures
- other states less impressive
- Virginia: 43% before act, only 44% after the act
- Florida: 51% before act, only 54% after act
The “open Housing Law”
- led to the passing of fair housing act 1968
- no discrimination in sale or rental of houses
- integrated housing
The “Open Housing Law”: Successes
- meant black Americans had a fair chance to buy their own house
- established a principle of equality/desegregation
The “Open Housing Law”: failures
- difficult to enforce in face of difficult white opposition
- Whites worried if black Americans live in their area, their house value will decrease
Medicare Act - 1965
- 1965
- came under social security act
- provided fed funding health insurance for over 65s and those with disabilities
Medicare Act: successes
- 1966: 19 million in 1966 enrolled
- gifted millions of elderly Americans out of poverty
- no president wanted to oppose it for fear of loosing ‘grey vote’
- 1/5 of America benefited from medicare and Medicaid combined
Medicare Act: Failures
- more expensive than anticipated
- was $3.5 billion, expected to be $12 Billion by 1990 was actually $98 billion
- gaps in coverage e.g. glasses, dental care, nursing homes
Economic Opportunity Act
- 1964
- created office of economic oppertinuty which coordinated variety of initiatives to eradicate poverty
Economic Opportunity Act: Successes
- created all poverty legislation
- 44 states had antipoverty programmes
- 1965-1972: 17% to 11% poverty
Economic Opportunity Act: failures
- limited by cost
- Vietnam War high economic pressure on governemnt
- little money left for poverty programmes
- 1966: $12 billion spent on act and $22 billion on Vietnam
- Johnson didnt raise tax to fund the Act either
Head Start
Enabled poor pre-school children to catch up before they enter school - nearly 1 million enrolled
Upward Bound
- 1965
- linked high-education to poorer students with college potential with federal funded part time work
- 50,000 participated in programme each year
- gave younger people in poverty motivation to go to college
Job Corps
- 1964
- improved skills of unemployed innercity youths
Job Corps:
- placed youths in 10,000 jobs
- recieved thousands of applicants daily
- 53 centres
- big companies took part (IBM)
Job Corps: Failures
- many dicipline problems
- $11,000 per student to train them
- never recieved full support from congress
VISTA
- 1965
- gave middle class oppertunity to help out needy
VISTA: successes
- 1965: 8,000 had volunteeded
- encouraged community service and the sense of community strived for in the great society
Overall Success
- No. of families in poverty decreased from 40 million in 1928 to 28 million in 1959
- established long term investment in education
- 1/3rd of non white families still lived below poverty line
ESEA
- 1965
- aimed to use federal funding to aid deprived children
ESEA: successes
- Allocated $1 billion a year to schools with high concentration of low income children
- 6.7 billion children benefitted
ESEA: failures
- should have been policy against poverty
- 1/2 of all expenditure had gone to children living above poverty line
- president paid little attention to how it worked in practice
- local school administrators skirted guidelines for spending
Higher Education Act
- 1965
- aimed to help poorer students: strengthen the educational resources of colleged and unis and provide financial assistance to students
- provide loans for students to pay college fees
Higher Education Act: successes
- 11 million benefitted from $650 million
- gave access to Americans from poor backgrounds to higher education
- 1950: 15% college students recieved financial aid
- 1970: 25% college students recieved financial aid
- 1990: 52% college students recieved financial aid
Housing and Urban Development act
co-ordinated various programmes to combat housing shortages and urban decay
Housing and Urban Development act: successes
- 240,000 houses constructed
- provided $2.9 million for urban renewal
Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Act
- 1966
- local communities and all levels of government would work on the lack of cheap housing, good transportation, recreational facilities, and slum clearance
Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Act: Successes
- local government offered 80% grants to deal with healthcare and job creation
- 1966-1967: congress authorised spending = $412 million to $512 million
Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Act: failures
- money didnt change anything
- high crime rates and level of violence were the same
- programme was underfunded and cut of $1.2 billion
- congress damanded money for their cinstituencies and as a result money too thinly spread
Omibus Housing Act
- 1965
- to improve ghetto housing
Omibus Housing Act: Successes
- financed rent supplements
- Johnson persuaded people to construct reasonably priced housing
- Congress = spent $1.7 million
Omibus Housing Act: failures
- Ghettos remained in poor condition
- White tax payers remained unwilling to help
- 1969: Nixon would further reduce the spending
Success of war on poverty with EOA
- 44 states had anti-poveert programmes
- 53 Job Corp centres = recieved alot of applicants
- 25,000 families on welfare recieving work training
- 35,000 college students on work-study programmes
- Neighborhood Youth Corps in 49 cities and 11 rural communities
- 8000 VISTA’s assisting poor groups
- over 4M recieving aid for dependent children benefit families
- $17M on loans given for small businesses
- Community Action Programme assisted poor areas in combatting poverty
were the Urban problems resolved?
- not really
- despite legislation, state of ghettos didnt improve and caused discontent
- 4/5ths of detroit ghettos riders arresred in 1967 had jobs paying over $120 weekly, suggesting it was housing rather than poverty causing alienation
- tax payers didnt want to fund large-scale improvements
- majority opposed integrated housing
- 1968: J focused on ending discrimination on housing
- congress rewsponded with Fair Housing Act = unsuccessful from white opposition
Successes of the great society
- 1976: medicare + medicaidcovered 20% population (19M 1966)
- Head Start P: free nursery for 1M
- 50,000 benefitted from Upward Bound Programme
- poor families in US: 40M-25M from 1959-1968
- Poverty: 17%-11% from 1965-1970s
- federal xpenditure on poor: $13bn-$20bn from 1963-1966
Failures of the Great Society
- accused of damaging economy with interventionist approach
- accused of destroying AA families through liberal welfare + CRL
- ignored ‘silent majority’
- promised too much and was underfunded
- unpopular extension of federal gov
- medicare + medicaid expensive: expected to be $12bn by 1990 but turned out to be $98bn - cost remained high for those excluded - only 1/5th
- J underestimated impact of social tensions
Impact of Vietnam on the Great Society
- put sargent Shriver as Director of OEO with initial budget $1bn
- Vietnam War killed the war on poverty, taking Js money + time
- 1965-73: $15.5bn spent on GS, and $120bn on Vietnam
- Vietnam caused tax inflation, making GS more unpopular
- 1966: MLK said gov was spending $500,000 to kill one vietcong soldier and only $35 available for each poor American
