Johnson: pursuit of great society

Question 1

Programmes of great society: 1964

Answer 1

• Economic Opportunity Act
• Urban Mass Transportation Act
• Omnibus Housing Act
• Civil Rights Act
• Wilderness Protection Act

Question 2

Civil Rights Act

Answer 2

• 1964
• ban on exclusion from restaurants, stores and other public places
• mixed education
• voting rights
• no racial, sexual or religious discrimination would be lawful

Question 3

Civil Rights Act: Successes

Answer 3

• 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

Question 4

Civil Rights Act: Failures

Answer 4

• voting rights not protected
• de facto, discrimination remained
• 68% of southern black school children still attended segregated schools in 1968

Question 5

Voting Rights Act

Answer 5

• 1965

- outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted

Question 6

Voting Rights Act: Successes

Answer 6

• 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

Question 7

Voting Rights Act: Failures

Answer 7

• other states less impressive
• Virginia: 43% before act, only 44% after the act
• Florida: 51% before act, only 54% after act

Question 8

The “open Housing Law”

Answer 8

• led to the passing of fair housing act 1968
• no discrimination in sale or rental of houses
• integrated housing

Question 9

The “Open Housing Law”: Successes

Answer 9

• meant black Americans had a fair chance to buy their own house
• established a principle of equality/desegregation

Question 10

The “Open Housing Law”: failures

Answer 10

• difficult to enforce in face of difficult white opposition
• Whites worried if black Americans live in their area, their house value will decrease

Question 11

Medicare Act - 1965

Answer 11

• 1965
• came under social security act
• provided fed funding health insurance for over 65s and those with disabilities

Question 12

Medicare Act: successes

Answer 12

• 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

Question 13

Medicare Act: Failures

Answer 13

• 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

Question 14

Economic Opportunity Act

Answer 14

• 1964

- created office of economic oppertinuty which coordinated variety of initiatives to eradicate poverty

Question 15

Economic Opportunity Act: Successes

Answer 15

• created all poverty legislation
• 44 states had antipoverty programmes
• 1965-1972: 17% to 11% poverty

Question 16

Economic Opportunity Act: failures

Answer 16

• 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

Question 17

Head Start

Answer 17

Enabled poor pre-school children to catch up before they enter school - nearly 1 million enrolled

Question 18

Upward Bound

Answer 18

• 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

Question 19

Job Corps

Answer 19

• 1964

- improved skills of unemployed innercity youths

Question 20

Job Corps:

Answer 20

• placed youths in 10,000 jobs
• recieved thousands of applicants daily
• 53 centres
• big companies took part (IBM)

Question 21

Job Corps: Failures

Answer 21

• many dicipline problems
• $11,000 per student to train them
• never recieved full support from congress

Question 22

VISTA

Answer 22

• 1965

- gave middle class oppertunity to help out needy

Question 23

VISTA: successes

Answer 23

• 1965: 8,000 had volunteeded

- encouraged community service and the sense of community strived for in the great society

Question 24

Overall Success

Answer 24

• 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

Question 25

ESEA

Answer 25

• 1965

- aimed to use federal funding to aid deprived children

Question 26

ESEA: successes

Answer 26

• Allocated $1 billion a year to schools with high concentration of low income children
• 6.7 billion children benefitted

Question 27

ESEA: failures

Answer 27

• 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

Question 28

Higher Education Act

Answer 28

• 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

Question 29

Higher Education Act: successes

Answer 29

• 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

Question 30

Housing and Urban Development act

Answer 30

co-ordinated various programmes to combat housing shortages and urban decay

Question 31

Housing and Urban Development act: successes

Answer 31

• 240,000 houses constructed

- provided $2.9 million for urban renewal

Question 32

Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Act

Answer 32

• 1966
• local communities and all levels of government would work on the lack of cheap housing, good transportation, recreational facilities, and slum clearance

Question 33

Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Act: Successes

Answer 33

• local government offered 80% grants to deal with healthcare and job creation
• 1966-1967: congress authorised spending = $412 million to $512 million

Question 34

Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Act: failures

Answer 34

• 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

Question 35

Omibus Housing Act

Answer 35

• 1965

- to improve ghetto housing

Question 36

Omibus Housing Act: Successes

Answer 36

• financed rent supplements
• Johnson persuaded people to construct reasonably priced housing
• Congress = spent $1.7 million

Question 37

Omibus Housing Act: failures

Answer 37

• Ghettos remained in poor condition
• White tax payers remained unwilling to help
• 1969: Nixon would further reduce the spending

Question 38

Success of war on poverty with EOA

Answer 38

• 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

Question 39

were the Urban problems resolved?

Answer 39

• 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

Question 40

Successes of the great society

Answer 40

• 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

Question 41

Failures of the Great Society

Answer 41

• 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

Question 42

Impact of Vietnam on the Great Society

Answer 42

• 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