1. The Great Society

2. LBJ Took office after JFK’s assassination in November, 1963
Encouraged passage of JFK’s Civil Rights Act and tax cut plans
Deficit reduced from $6 billion to $4 billion
Declares “war on poverty” and plans for new social programs

3. 1964 Election Barry Goldwater: conservative Republican
Not government’s job to create social programs
Johnson wins by landslide (61%), Democrats win large majorities in Congress
By the time he left office in 1969, Congress had passed more than 200 of his bills

4. The Great Society poverty & health care housing & cities education
environment
immigration
consumer protections

5. Education ESEA of 1965: $1 billion for textbooks
College scholarships and low-interest loans
Corporation for Public Broadcasting: educational TV
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965): more than $1 billion n federal aid for public and parochial schools to purchase textbooks and library material—one of earliest federal aid packages for education in nation’s history
Higher Education Act (1965)
National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities (1965)
Public Broadcasting Act (1967) Corporation for Public Broadcasting

6. Poverty & Healthcare Economic Opportunity Act
Head Start, VISTA, Job Corps
Appalachian Development Act
Medicare for those over 65
Medicaid for those below the poverty line
“War on Poverty”

7. Housing & Cities 240,000 low-rent public housing projects
HUD to administer federal home loans at low interest rates
Funding for rebuilding “slums”
Funding for mass transportation
“War on Poverty”

8. Environment Water Quality Act made states clean up rivers
Clean Air Act set emission standards
Wilderness Act set aside 9 million acres of national forest land
Silent Spring is an environmental science book written by Rachel Carson and published in The book documented the detrimental effects on the environment—particularly on birds—of the indiscriminate use of pesticides. It started the modern environmental movement and led to a ban on DDT.

9. Immigration
Immigration Act of 1965 ended national-origins quotas that had discriminated against people from outside Western Europe

10. Consumer Protections
Federal safety standards for auto and tire companies
Transportation Department, Highway Safety Act
Standards for labeling consumer products
Wholesome Meat Act
Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile by Ralph Nader, published in 1965, is a book accusing car manufacturers of resistance to the introduction of safety features, like seat belts, and their general reluctance to spend money on improving safety.