Civil rights . Historian Alan Brinkley has suggested that the most important domestic achievement of the Great Society may have been its success in translating some of the demands of the civil rights movement into law. Four civil rights acts were passed, including three laws in the first two years of Johnson's presidency. The
Civil Rights Act of 1964 Scholar and biographer Robert Caro suggested that Johnson used racially charged language to appease legislators in an effort to pass civil rights laws, including adapting how he said the word 'negro' based upon where the legislator's district was located. A clause was also written into the Act to make sure (as noted by one observer) that community action programs meet the real needs of the poor.” The OEO reflected a fragile consensus among policymakers that the best way to deal with poverty was not simply to raise the incomes of the poor but to help them better themselves through education, job training, and community development. Central to its mission was the idea of "
community action", the participation of the poor in framing and administering the programs designed to help them.
Programs The War on Poverty began with a $1 billion appropriation in 1964 and spent another $2 billion in the following two years. It gave rise to dozens of programs, among them the
Job Corps, whose purpose was to help disadvantaged youth develop marketable skills; the
Neighborhood Youth Corps, established to give poor urban youths work experience and to encourage them to stay in school;
Volunteers in Service to America (
VISTA), a domestic version of the
Peace Corps, which placed concerned citizens with community-based agencies to work towards empowerment of the poor; the
Model Cities Program for urban redevelopment;
Upward Bound, which assisted poor high school students entering college; legal services for the poor; and the
Food Stamp Act of 1964 (which expanded the federal food stamp program). Programs included the
Community Action Program, which initiated local
Community Action Agencies charged with helping the poor become self-sufficient; and Project
Head Start, which offered preschool education for poor children. In addition, funding was provided for the establishment of community health centers to expand access to health care, while major amendments were made to
Social Security in 1965 and 1967 which significantly increased benefits, expanded coverage, and established new programs to combat poverty and raise living standards. In addition, average AFDC payments were 35% higher in 1968 than in 1960, but remained insufficient and uneven. Various initiatives were also carried out to meet the health needs of children.
Education The most important educational component of the Great Society was the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, designed by Commissioner of Education
Francis Keppel. It was signed into law on April 11, 1965, less than three months after it was introduced. It ended a long-standing political taboo by providing significant federal aid to public education, initially allocating more than $1 billion to help schools purchase materials and start special education programs to schools with a high concentration of low-income children. During its first year of operation, the Act authorized a $1.1 billion program of grants to states, for allocations to school districts with large numbers of children of low-income families, funds to use community facilities for education within the entire community, funds to improve educational research and to strengthen state departments of education, and grants for the purchase of books and library materials. The Act also established
Head Start, which had originally been started by the Office of Economic Opportunity as an eight-week summer program, as a permanent program. The Higher Education Facilities Act of 1963, which was signed into law by Johnson a month after becoming president, authorized several times more college aid within a five-year period than had been appropriated under the Land Grant College in a century. It provided better college libraries, ten to twenty new graduate centers, several new technical institutes, classrooms for several hundred thousand students, and twenty-five to thirty new community colleges a year. This major piece of legislation was followed by the
Higher Education Act of 1965, which increased federal money given to universities, created scholarships and low-interest loans for students, and established a national
Teacher Corps to provide teachers to poverty-stricken areas of the United States. The Act also began a transition from federally funded institutional assistance to individual student aid. In 1964, basic improvements in the National Defense Education Act were achieved, and total funds available to educational institutions were increased. The yearly limit on loans to graduate and professional students was raised from $1,000 to $2,500, and the aggregate limit was raised from $5,000 to $10,000. The program was extended to include geography, history, reading, English, and civics, and guidance and counseling programs were extended to elementary and public junior high schools. The
Bilingual Education Act of 1968 offered federal aid to local school districts in assisting them to address the needs of children with limited English-speaking ability until it expired in 2002. The Great Society programs also provided support for postgraduate clinical training for both nurses and physicians committed to work with disadvantaged patients in rural and urban health clinics.
Health Medicare During the Kennedy Administration, a vote was taken in the Senate in July 1962 on whether or not to approve a proposal to provide medical care for the aged, known as Medicare. The proposal was narrowly defeated, with 52 votes against and only 48 votes in favor. Political experts believed that the 1962 midterm elections improved (as noted by one observer) “chances of passage of an administration-type medicare bill”, while also arguing that “if the measure gets to the floor of the House, it should win a majority.” On August 31, 1964, an amendment to the proposed Social Security Amendments of 1964, which further increased the proposed level of Social Security benefits and added hospital insurance to the program, was passed in the Senate by a vote of 49 to 44. The following day the entire bill passed the Senate by 60 to 28 votes. Following this vote, as noted by one study, "Seeking to ensure that the health insurance proposal emerge from the conference committee as part of the report, the administration flirted with an effort to have the full House of Representatives vote to instruct the conference to yield to the Senate version. Though the health insurance provision appeared to have majority support in the House, the tactic did not, and the idea was dropped. Sure enough, the House conferees voted 3 to 2 against the Senate health provision; the Senate conferees voted 4 to 3 to accept a bill only if Medicare were included." Medicare finally came about with the
Social Security Act of 1965 which authorized
Medicare and provided federal funding for many of the medical costs of older Americans. The legislation overcame the bitter resistance, particularly from the
American Medical Association, to the idea of
publicly funded health care or "
socialized medicine" by making its benefits available to everyone over sixty-five, regardless of need, and by linking payments to the existing private insurance system.
Medicaid In 1966 welfare recipients of all ages received medical care through the
Medicaid program. Medicaid was created on July 30, 1965, under Title XIX of the Social Security Act of 1965. Each state administers its own Medicaid program while the federal
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) monitors the state-run programs and establishes requirements for service delivery, quality, funding, and eligibility standards.
Neighborhood health centers Under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964's Community Action Program, as noted by one study, "hospitals, medical schools, community groups, and health departments received grants to plan and administer neighborhood health centers in low-income areas." One hundred neighborhood health centers had been set up under the Economic Opportunity Act by 1971.
Welfare A number of changes were made to the Social Security program in terms of both coverage and adequacy of benefits. The Tax Adjustment Act of 1966 included a provision for special payments under the social security program to certain uninsured individuals aged 72 and over. The Social Security Amendments of 1965 included a 7% increase in cash benefits, a liberalization of the definition of disability, a liberalization of the amount a person can earn and still get full benefits (the so-called retirement test), payment of benefits to eligible children aged 18–21 who are attending school, payment of benefits to widows at age 60 on an actuarially reduced basis, coverage of self-employed physicians, coverage of tips as wages, liberalization of insured-status requirements for persons already aged 72 or over, an increase to $6,600 the amount of earnings counted for contribution and benefit purposes (the contribution and benefit base), and an increase in the contribution rate schedule. The Child Nutrition Act, passed in 1966, made improvements to nutritional assistance to children such as in the introduction of the School Breakfast Program.
The arts and cultural institutions Johnson promoted the arts in terms of social betterment, not artistic creativity. He typically emphasized qualitative and quantitative goals, especially the power of the arts to improve the quality of life of ordinary Americans and to reduce the inequalities between the haves and the have-nots. Karen Patricia Heath observes that, "Johnson personally was not much interested in the acquisition of knowledge, cultural or otherwise, for its own sake, nor did he have time for art appreciation or meeting with artists."
National Endowments for the arts and the humanities In September 1965, Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act into law, creating both the
National Endowment for the Arts and
National Endowment for the Humanities as separate, independent agencies. Lobbying for federally funded arts and humanities support began during the Kennedy Administration. In 1963 three scholarly and educational organizations—the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the Council of Graduate Schools in America, and the United Chapters of
Phi Beta Kappa—joined to establish the National Commission on the Humanities. In June 1964, the commission released a report that suggested that the emphasis placed on science endangered the study of the humanities from elementary schools through postgraduate programs. To correct the balance, it recommended "the establishment by the President and the Congress of the United States of a National Humanities Foundation". In August 1964, Representative
William S. Moorhead of Pennsylvania proposed legislation to implement the commission's recommendations. Support from the White House followed in September, when Johnson lent his endorsement during a speech at
Brown University. In March 1965, the
White House proposed the establishment of a National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities and requested $20 million in start-up funds. The commission's report had generated other proposals, but the White House's approach eclipsed them. The administration's plan, which called for the creation of two separate agencies each advised by a governing body, was the version that the Congress approved.
Richard Nixon dramatically expanded funding for NEH and NEA. In the late 1930s the U.S. Congress mandated a
Smithsonian Institution art museum for the National Mall, and a design by
Eliel Saarinen was unveiled in 1939, but plans were shelved during World War II. A 1966 act of the U.S. Congress established the
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden as part of the
Smithsonian Institution with a focus on modern art, in contrast to the existing
National Art Gallery. The museum was primarily federally funded, although New York financier
Joseph Hirshhorn later contributed $1 million toward building construction, which began in 1969. The Hirshhorn opened in 1974.
Transportation Transportation initiatives started during President Johnson's term in office included the consolidation of transportation agencies into a cabinet-level position under the
Department of Transportation. The department was authorized by Congress on October 15, 1966, and began operations on April 1, 1967. Congress passed a variety of legislation to support improvements in transportation including The
Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 which provided $375 million for large-scale urban public or private rail projects in the form of matching funds to cities and states and created the
Urban Mass Transit Administration (now the
Federal Transit Administration),
High Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965 which resulted in the creation of
high-speed rail between New York and Washington, and the
National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966—a bill largely taken credit for by
Ralph Nader, whose book
Unsafe at Any Speed he claims helped inspire the legislation.
Consumer protection In 1964, Johnson named Assistant Secretary of Labor
Esther Peterson to be the first presidential assistant for consumer affairs. The
Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965 required packages to carry warning labels. The Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 set standards through creation of the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The
Fair Packaging and Labeling Act requires products identify manufacturer, address, clearly mark quantity and servings. The statute also authorized the
HEW and the
FTC to establish and define voluntary standard sizes. The original would have mandated uniform standards of size and weight for comparison shopping, but the final law only outlawed exaggerated size claims. The Child Safety Act of 1966 prohibited any chemical so dangerous that no warning can make it safe. The Flammable Fabrics Act of 1967 set standards for children's sleepwear, but not baby blankets. The
Wholesome Meat Act of 1967 required inspection of meat which must meet federal standards. The
Truth-in-Lending Act of 1968 required lenders and credit providers to disclose the full cost of finance charges in both dollars and annual percentage rates, on installment loan and sales. The Wholesome Poultry Products Act of 1968 required inspection of poultry which must meet federal standards. The Land Sales Disclosure Act of 1968 provided safeguards against fraudulent practices in the sale of land. The Radiation Safety Act of 1968 provided standards and recalls for defective electronic products.
Environment Joseph A. Califano Jr. has suggested that the Great Society's main contribution to the environment was an extension of protections beyond those aimed at the conservation of untouched resources. In a message he transmitted to Congress, President Johnson said: At the behest of Secretary of the Interior
Stewart Udall, the Great Society included several new environmental laws to protect air and water. Environmental legislation enacted included: •
Water Quality Act of 1965 •
Clean Air Act of 1963 •
Wilderness Act of 1964 •
Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966 •
National Trails System Act of 1968 •
Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 •
Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 •
Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965 •
Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act of 1965 •
National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 •
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
Housing Under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 loans were authorized "to low income farm families for small farm improvements and nonfarm enterprises that would add to family income". That same year a Housing Act was introduced which improved the quality of the housing program by requiring minimum standards of code enforcement, providing assistance to dislocated families and small businesses and authorizing below market interest loans for rehabilitating housing in urban renewal areas. In 1965, the rural housing program was converted to one largely funded on an insured-loan basis, which opened the way "for a great increase in volume of the program and expanded the loan program for rural waste systems to a loan and grant program for water and waste disposal systems, raising the maximum population of rural towns served to 5,500 and maximum financing per project to $4 million. In addition, the annual ceiling on insured loans for community facilities and farm ownership was increased from $200 million to $450 million. New housing legislation in 1966 removed a 62-year age minimum "on tenants of low income rural rent housing financed through the agency, and on borrowers obtaining individual housing loans on the basis of cosigners. It also authorized FmHa to finance purchase of newly-constructed homes". The Disaster Relief Act of 1966 authorized HUD, as noted by one study, “to refinance loans when necessary because of the loss, destruction or damage to property securing the loans as the result of a major disaster”.
Rural development A number of measures were introduced to improve socio-economic conditions in rural areas. Under Title III of the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act, Special Programs to Combat Rural Poverty, the Office for Economic Opportunity was authorized to act as a lender of last resort for rural families who needed money to help them permanently increase their earning capacity. Loans could be made to purchase land, improve the operation of family farms, allow participation in cooperative ventures, and finance non-agricultural business enterprises, while local cooperatives which served low-income rural families could apply for another category of loans for similar purposes. The Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 reorganized the Areas Redevelopment Administration (ARA) into the
Economic Development Administration (EDA), and authorized $3.3 billion over 5 years while specifying seven criteria for eligibility. The list included low median family income, but the 6% or higher unemployment applied to the greatest number of areas, while the Act also mentioned outmigration from rural areas as a criterion. In an attempt to go beyond what one writer described as "ARA's failed scattershot approach" of providing aid to individual counties and inspired by the European model of regional development, the EDA encouraged counties to form Economic Development Districts (EDDs) as it was recognized that individual distressed counties (called RAs or Redevelopment Areas) lacked sufficient resources for their own development. Amendments made to the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act in 1964 extended the prevailing wage provisions to cover fringe benefits, while the Farm Labor Contractor Registration Act of 1963, which was enacted in September 1964, sought to improve conditions for interstate migrant farmworkers. The Service Contract Act of 1965 provided for minimum wages and fringe benefits as well as other conditions of work for contractors under certain types of service contracts. The Federal Coal Mine Safety Act Amendments of 1966 extended the provisions of a previous federal Act related to coal mine safety to those mines (as noted by one study) “regularly employing less than 15 persons underground”, while the Federal Metal and Nonmetallic Mine Safety Act of 1966 established procedures (as noted by one study) “for developing safety and health standards for metal and nonmetal mines”. Various improvements in the pay and benefits of federal employees were also introduced, and a comprehensive minimum rate hike was signed into law that extended the coverage of the
Fair Labor Standards Act to about 9.1 million additional workers. a measure aimed at repealing the section of the
Taft-Hartley Act that authorized
right-to-work laws. The measure, however, failed to pass as a result of a Senate filibuster. == Conservative opposition ==