Johnson’s Great Society

Learning Objectives

The Great Society What is LBJ’s Great Society? Look at the handout What programs have you heard of?

And with your courage and with your compassion and your desire, we will build a Great Society. It is a Society where no child will go unfed, and no youngster will go unschooled. -- LBJ

War on Poverty "This administration today here and now declares unconditional war on poverty in America. I urge this Congress and all Americans to join me in that effort.... "Poverty is a national problem, requiring improved national organization and support. But this attack, to be effective, must also be organized at the State and local level. "For the war against poverty will not be won here in Washington. It must be won in the field, in every private home, in every public office, from the courthouse to the White House. "Very often, a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the symptom. "Our aim is not only to relieve the symptoms of poverty but to cure it–and above all, to prevent it. "No single piece of legislation, however, is going to suffice."

We are going to assemble the best thought and broadest knowledge from all over the world to find these answers. I intend to establish working groups to prepare a series of conferences and meetings—on the cities, on natural beauty, on the quality of education, and on other emerging challenges. From these studies, we will begin to set our course toward the Great Society. -- LBJ

Notable Achievements Civil Rights War On Poverty Food Stamp Act of 1964- Social Security Act 1965 (Created Medicare and Medicaid) The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 Head Start Elementary and Secondary Education Act - 1965

Consumer protection The Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965 Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966-- creation of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration The Truth-in-Lending Act of 1968 required lenders and credit providers to disclose the full cost of finance charges in both dollars and annual …

The air we breathe, our water, our soil and wildlife, are being blighted by poisons and chemicals which are the by-products of technology and industry. The society that receives the rewards of technology, must, as a cooperating whole, take responsibility for [their] control. To deal with these new problems will require a new conservation. We must not only protect the countryside and save it from destruction, we must restore what has been destroyed and salvage the beauty and charm of our cities. Our conservation must be not just the classic conservation of protection [against] development, but a creative conservation of restoration and innovation. — Special Message to the Congress on Conservation and Restoration of Natural Beauty; February 8, 1965

Notable Environmental legislation Clean Air Act 1963 Wilderness Act 1964 Clean water Act 1965 Endangered Species Act 1966 National Trails Act 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act 1968

Wilderness Act 1964 “A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”