Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, Essay Example

The War on Poverty officially began under the presidency of Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Organizations at all levels of government created programs and initiatives all designed to effectively eradicate poverty in the United States. This gave rise to a new liberal agenda known as the welfare state. An unintended consequence of this War on Poverty was the distinction delineating the racial and ideological tensions that divided the country.

The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964

One initiative of the War on Poverty was the Congressional passage of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.  This is created the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), Upward Bound, Head Start,  the Neighborhood Youth Corps, and several other organizations devoted solely to giving benefits to ‘ impoverished and disadvantaged’ individuals.

The Higher Education Act of 1965

The Higher Education Act of 1965 provided federally funded programs and scholarship opportunities to poor students who wanted to go to college (high-ed.org, 2010). By educating more individuals, the poverty rates would dive due to the fact that the impoverished would now have the appropriate education necessary to get a decent job.

Conclusion

Though Lyndon Johnson is widely – and often solely – proclaimed to be the president who really galvanized the Civil Rights movement, his successor Richard Nixon was also hugely instrumental in moving the cause forward.. Although he didn’t fully support the War on Poverty, Nixon expanded the welfare stare through the expansion of the Food Stamp Act of 1964, inflating Social Security Income (SSI), and replacing the OEO with the Community Services Administration, redistributing the control of welfare organizations to the oversight of the federal government.

References

“Learn How the Higher Education Act of 1965 Strengthened American Colleges & Universities”. (2010). Retrieved on November 10, 2010 from higher-ed.org: http://www.higher-ed.org/resources/HEA.htm

Siegel, Robert. “Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty”. (2004). Retrieved on November 10, 2010 from NPR.org: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1589660