Lyndon B Johnson's Plans For The Great Society

1797 Words8 Pages

“The purpose of protecting the life of our Nation and preserving the liberty of our citizens is to pursue the happiness of our people. Our success in that pursuit is the test of our success as a Nation.” The assassination of Kennedy put many American citizens on edge and many Americans felt sympathy for Johnson as he was sworn in as president under difficult circumstances. He was sworn in as Vice President of the United States in January 1961, after he had become the Kennedy's running mate in 1960. On November 22, 1963, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the new President of the United States (History.com Staff, “Great Society”). When Johnson proposed his plans for the Great Society, he wanted …show more content…

During a special message to Congress by Johnson in March 1964, he had introduced the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Economic Opportunity Act. “Today for the first time in all the history of the human race, a great nation is able to make and is willing to make a commitment to eradicate poverty among its people,” Johnson said in the Rose Garden (Evaluating the success of the Great Society”). This was the base of the War on Poverty and he hoped to help the disadvantaged surpass the poverty cycle by helping them develop job skills, continue their education, and find jobs. In order to do this, he created a Job Corps for 100,000 underprivileged men. Half would work on conservation projects and the rest would receive education and skills training in special job training centers. In addition to the things he'd already done, he tasked state and local governments with creating work training programs for up to 200,000 women and men (History.com Staff, “Great Society”). Other initiatives the War on Poverty offered were a Community Action program for people to tackle poverty within their own communities, the ability for the government to recruit and train skilled American volunteers to serve poverty-stricken communities, loans and guarantees for employers who offered jobs to the unemployed, funds for farmers to purchase land and establish agricultural co-ops, and help for unemployed parents preparing to enter the workforce (History.com Staff, “Great Society”). Johnson’s effort in helping this shows today when you are able to look at all of the acts he created in order to help this fight on the War on

Open Document