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Great Society

Great Society. Page 65 NCSCOS Goal 11. LBJ. - Lyndon Baines Johnson Middle-class Texan in House of Representatives, then Senate -became follower of FDR Wanted to help the common man -showed remarkable ability to forge compromises Excellent, persuasive politician

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Great Society

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  1. Great Society Page 65 NCSCOS Goal 11

  2. LBJ • -Lyndon Baines Johnson • Middle-class Texan in House of Representatives, then Senate • -became follower of FDR • Wanted to help the common man • -showed remarkable ability to forge compromises • Excellent, persuasive politician • -helped pass Civil Rights Act of 1957 • -Johnson encouraged the nation to move past the assassination • -sent Congress a program to fix the nation’s problems • Got Congress to pass Kennedy’s legislation “Johnson, was, it seemed, in a relaxed, friendly, reminiscent mood. But by gradual stages this mood gave way to something rather like a human hurricane. Johnson was up, striding about his office, talking without pause, occasionally leaning over, his nose almost touching the reporter’s, to shake the reporter’s shoulder or grab his knee…while the reporter, unable to get a word in edgewise, sat collapsed upon a leather sofa, eyes glazed, half-open.”

  3. LBJ’s Agenda • -large tax reductions • $10 billion in tax cuts; worked • -Civil Rights Act of 1964 • banned discrimination • On the basis of race, religion, national origin, and sex • -Unconditional War on Poverty • 1964 State of the Union • Gained $1 billion to aid the poor • Head Start • Educational program for poor pre-school children • Jobs Corps • Job training program for the poor • VISTA • Volunteers in Service to America “The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents. It is a place where leisure is a welcome chance to build and reflect, not a feared cause of boredom and restlessness. It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community. It is a place where man can renew contact with nature. It is a place which honors certain creation for its own sake and for what it adds to the understanding of the race.”

  4. LBJ’s Agenda • -Election of 1964 • Johnson • Barry Goldwater – no aid to the poor • Johnson and Democrats in control of Congress, gets things done

  5. Great Society • -’64 election gives Johnson a mandate • creating a higher SOL and providing equal opportunity were objectives of Great Society • Over 60 programs passed • -Secondary Education Act • $1 billion to help schools buy books • -Medicare • Hospital and low-cost insurance to those over 65 • -Medicaid • Extended health care insurance to welfare recipients • -HUD (Housing/Urban Development) • Low-rent homes, renewed urban areas • -National Endowment for Humanities • Financially assists artists

  6. Government Protection • -Immigration Act 1965 • Allowed non-European immigrants to settle in America by ending quotas based on national origin • -Department of Transportation • Air, Rail, and Highway Support • -environmental protection • Rachel Carson • “Silent Spring” • Water Quality & Clean Air Act • States must provide clean water and clean air • -consumer protection • Ralph Nader and “Unsafe at any Speed” • -Fair Packaging and Labeling Act • Better and safer products

  7. Warren Court • -Chief Justice Earl Warren led the Supreme Court on an activist stance • Court began to interpret rights in a broader fashion • -Brown v. Board, 1954 • Over-turned Plessy v. Ferguson • Made segregation laws illegal • -Mapp v. Ohio, 1961 • Exclusionary rule for evidence obtained without a warrant • -Gideon v. Wainwright, 1963 • All people have rights to an attorney • -Miranda v. Arizona, 1966 • “Miranda Rights” – upholds 5th Amendment rights The Warren Court made many landmark decisions in their quest for equal and fair justice to all American citizens

  8. Impact of the Great Society • -extension of federal power • Gave the President and all of gov. more power over people • -rate of poverty did decrease • 21% to 11% • -growing budget deficit • National debt grew as gov. spent more money on social programs • -conservative backlash • People began looking toward Republicans again • -conflict in Vietnam • Brewing since 1950s; containment • -choice between war and the Great Society programs • -”Guns or butter”

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