“The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. But that is just the beginning. The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents. ...

Will you join in the battle to give every citizen the full equality which God enjoins and the law requires, whatever his belief, or race, or the color of his skin? Will you join in the battle to give every citizen an escape from the crushing weight of poverty?"

With the Great Society, President Johnson had the ambitious goal of eliminating poverty and racial injustice in America. To achieve this, he created many federal programs and signed forceful legislation. This includes:

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

Jim Crow laws and white supremacist violence and intimidation prevented Black citizens from enjoying their full rights across the South. Civil rights activists were pushing for federal legislation to protect their rights.

A civil rights bill was proposed by President John F. Kennedy in June 1963, but faced strong opposition from southerners in Congress and a Senate filibuster prevented it from passing.

After Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, new President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed the bill forward as a centerpiece of his Great Society platform.

With Johnson’s skillful pushing, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed Congress by a Senate vote of 73–27 and House vote of 289–126. President Johnson signed the bill into law on July 2, 1964.

The Act outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It prohibited unequal application of voter registration requirements, and racial segregation in schools, employment, and public accommodations.

Powers given to enforce the act were initially weak but were supplemented during later years. Congress asserted its authority to legislate under several different parts of the Constitution, principally its power to regulate interstate commerce under Article One, its duty to guarantee all citizens equal protection of the laws under the 14th Amendment, and its duty to protect voting rights under the 15th Amendment.

The Job Corps

According to the US Census, America's poverty rate in 1964 stood at 19%. Additionally, the unemployment rate for young people was double that of older Americans.

As a young teacher in Texas, Lyndon Johnson saw poverty firsthand and as president sought to do his best to eliminate it.

The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 authorized the formation of local agencies to offer training and job opportunities to eradicate the causes of poverty.

One of the first agencies to do this was the Jobs Corps.

Modeled on New Deal programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps, it helped young people aged 16-24 through free vocational and academic training.

Today, there are over 120 Job Corps centers offering vocational training programs. Since its inception, Job Corps has served almost 2 million young people.

Head Start

In 1964, President Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act into law. This authorized the formation of local Community Action Agencies as part of the War on Poverty.

One of the most popular programs created through the Act was Head Start.

Pediatricians, educators, and distinguished professors designed a comprehensive child development program to help communities meet the needs of disadvantaged preschool children.

Launched in 1965, Head Start was originally conceived as an 8-week summer school program that would help prepare low-income children to start elementary school.

The following year it was authorized by Congress as a year-round program which it continues as today.

Studies have found children who attended Head Start had higher incomes and more education as adults than similar children who did not attend.

Today, more than 1 million children are enrolled in Head Start.

Food Stamp Act of 1964

In August of 1964, President Johnson signed the Food Stamp Act of 1964 into law.

The goal of the Act was to prevent hunger, improve the lives of low-income Americans, and support the country’s agricultural industry.

Individuals in need could apply for food stamps that could then be exchanged like money at grocery stores.

State agencies determined eligibility for the program and distributed stamps while the federal government paid for the program.

The food stamps ensured recipients used the support on groceries and nutrition. This also gave an economic boost to grocery stores by enabling customers to buy more goods not subsidized by the program.

In 2008, the program’s name was changed to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The Higher Education Act of 1965

The Higher Education Act was signed by President Johnson in November 1965.

The legislation provided financial assistance for students to enter college and higher education. This enabled many Americans to attend college who would not otherwise have had the chance.

For the first time, the federal government addressed the issue of financial aid for all students and established low-interest student loans.

In 1972, the Act was reauthorized, and the Pell Grant program was added, providing need-based grants for students at middle- and lower-income levels.

In addition, the law supported cooperative arrangements between colleges and universities and the establishment of a National Teacher Corps to attract teachers to underserved institutions.

Medicare

Prior to 1965, only about 60% of people over the age of 65 had health insurance. Coverage was often unavailable or unaffordable. Older adults paid three times as much for health insurance as younger people.

In July 1965, President Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments of 1965 which created Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare provided health insurance to people 65 and older, regardless of income or medical history.

Medicare also spurred the racial integration of thousands of hospitals and doctor’s offices by making payments to health care providers conditional on desegregation.

Today, Medicare provides health insurance for about 60 million Americans at a cost of $776.2 billion.

Medicaid

Medicaid, along with Medicare, was created in July 1965 after President Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments of 1965.

Under the program, the federal government provided matching funds to states to enable them to provide medical assistance to residents who met certain eligibility requirements.

The objective was to help states offer healthcare to their low-income populations who were unable to pay the cost of traditional health insurance plans.

It was funded by a tax on the earnings of employees, matched by contributions by employers.

States can tailor their Medicaid programs to best serve the people in their state, so there’s a wide variation in the services offered.

Today, Medicaid provides health care services to almost 100 million people at a cost of about $600 billion, with the federal government contributing $375 billion and states about $230 billion.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965

Although the 15th Amendment guaranteed suffrage to Black males in 1870, southern whites came up with ways to prevent them from voting. Some states issued poll taxes, which forced many poor Black men to pay a tax (which they could not afford) in order to vote. Other methods included using a literacy test, which was nearly impossible to pass, or being told to recite the entire Constitution. 

To protect illiterate white men, states also utilized a grandfather clause which stipulated that whites were exempt from the tax or test. 

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) attempted to register Black voters in Alabama and were met with violence and intimidation. When the Selma to Montgomery March for Voting Rights in March 1965 was also met with shocking violence, President Johnson pushed for legislation. 

In August 1965, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. This banned literacy tests and other laws that kept Black men and women from voting. It also provided for federal oversight of voter registration in areas where less than 50% of the non-white population was registered to vote.

In a few short years, voter registration for Black citizens in the South increased greatly. 

Corporation for Public Broadcasting

In November 1967, President Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. This created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with a goal of providing universal access to educational TV and radio broadcasting.

This led to the creation of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) in 1970.

PBS has provided free non-commercial programming since then, including programs like Sesame Street, Frontline, Arthur, and PBS NewsHour.

NPR is a network of over 1,000 public radio stations across the country. It also produces popular podcasts, news, and cultural programming.

The Fair Housing Act

In April 1968, in the wake of Martin Luther King’s assassination, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Title VIII of the Act is commonly referred to as the Fair Housing Act.

Despite earlier successes in desegregation, Black and Hispanic people still faced difficulty finding homes to buy or rent. Redlining and discrimination left most American cities segregated.

The Fair Housing Act expanded upon the earlier Civil Rights Act of 1964. It prohibited housing discrimination, specifically refusing to sell or rent to a person because of their race, color, religion or national origin. 

Discrimination based on sex was added in 1974, and people with disabilities and families with children were added to the list of protected classes in 1988.

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