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How successful was LBJ’s great society programme 1964-68?
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How successful was LBJ’s great society programme 1964-68?
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How successful was LBJ’s great society programme 1964-68?During Johnson's childhood he experienced poverty, so when it came to his
presidency he understood some of the struggles that people in America faced. When
elected he gave a speech announcing the things he aimed to achieve as part of his
‘great society’. Some of these were the end of poverty, racial equality, modern housing
reform and education reform. He aimed to achieve these by passing a number of acts
through congress. Some aspects of his great society programs were successful,
however not all of them.
Before he was elected president, there were high amounts of racial inequality. Black
Americans faced segregation in various public spaces, were not allowed to vote, were
denied education etc. Johnson passed a number of laws in order to achieve racial
equality such as the voting rights act, and the open housing law 1968. Before the
voting rights act was passed, the civil rights act 1964 made segregation illegal however
many people didnt put this into practice and so black americans still faced
inequalities. The civil rights act meant that legally they had the right to vote, but when
they went to register they were often made to pass literacy tests or made to answer
irrelevant questions which stopped them being able to register. Johnson tackled this
by passing the voting rights act which banned the use of literacy tests and other
barriers which stopped people from registering to vote. This was a success because
although racial segregation had supposedly ended with the civil rights act… this new
act enabled black Americans to vote for people who represented their views. It also
increased voter registration among black americans.
Another aspect that black Americans were excluded from was buying houses. Often
they were discriminated against and were turned down when trying to buy a house.
Johnson passed the open housing law and the fair housing act which aimed to
address discrimination in housing. These 2 pieces of legislation prohibited
discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing and made sure that people
who had been discriminated against could file complaints. This was also successful
because congress wasn’t in favour of this as most of them were white conservatives
and argued that it would cause property values to decline however, Johnson still
managed to convince them to get the law passed. Overall he was successful at getting
these legislations passed and into practice but it didnt stop people facing
discrimination from white American citizens.
The next thing Johnson wanted to do during his presidency was to end poverty and
unemployment. There were some successes in this area, for example the economic
opportunity act 1964 provided job training and education to low income americans.
He also did food stamp programmes. From Johnson's initiatives, poverty rates
declined from 19% to 11%. However he wasn't completely successful. The economic
opportunity act only focused on short term solutions and didnt look at the bigger
picture, initiatives were underfunded and congress were not easy to persuade to pass
some acts. Overall he made efforts but didnt completely end poverty.
He also wanted to reform the education system. Schools were overcrowded and 54
million Americans never finished school. Some couldn't afford college so didnt go any
further with their education past high school. Johnson wanted to provide greater
access to education for all. He did this through the elementary and secondary
education act. This provided federal aid to schools in low income areas and improved
educational opportunities. This can be seen as a success but some people argue that
he could have done more to make more significant change.
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