Presidential Succession From Kennedy to Johnson

John F. Kennedy was smiling broadly John F. Kennedy was smiling broadly. Riding through downtown Dallas in a limousine with his wife, Jacqueline, and Gov. and Mrs. John B. Connally, the president waved to smiling faces lining the streets. Nellie Connally turned to him. "No one can say Dallas doesn't love and respect you, Mr. President," she said. "You sure can't," he answered. Minutes later, Kennedy lay crumpled in the back of the limousine, his head, shattered by gunfire, cradled by his weeping wife. In the seat ahead of him, Connally also lay wounded. Nov. 22, 1963, was a day the nation would not forget. It is a day we remember here.

V.P. Johnson immediately sworn in as President.

Assassination Lee Harvey Oswald Jack Ruby

Johnson’s “Great Society”

Johnson was inaugurated after the death of JFK Johnson was inaugurated after the death of JFK. Five days later Johnson vowed to continue the initiatives that JFK had begun. Kennedy proposed antipoverty programs, tax cuts, and civil rights legislation in the middle of his term, but they were left unrealized because of his death. Johnson used his skills and Kennedy’s name to push these initiatives through Congress. He called these initiatives the Great Society , implying that its opponents didn’t want the U.S. to progress. In 1964 Johnson declared a “War on Poverty,” and used promises, threats, intimidation, and forceful language to get his initiatives passed.

Six most significant programs of the Great Society Civil Rights Act of 1964 Equal Opportunity Act of 1964 Elementary & Secondary Education Act of 1965 Medicare Act of 1965 Immigration Act of 1965 Voting Rights Act of 1965

Summarize one of the programs for the rest of the class. What problem did the law address? Whom was it intended to help? Did the law hurt anyone? Whom & How? In what ways did the law succeed and in what ways did it fail? Do we still need this law today? Why or why not?