On Jan. 8, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address declared an “unconditional war on poverty in America.”
“Poverty is a national problem, requiring improved national organization and support,” Johnson told the members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. “But this attack, to be effective, must also be organized at the state and the local level and must be supported and directed by state and local efforts.
Poverty in the United States stood at 19% in 1964, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The Democratic former Texas U.S. senator and U.S. vice president became president after the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Among the Michigan congressional delegation hearing Johnson’s message were U.S. Sen Philip Hart (D-Birmingham), U.S. Rep. Gerald Ford (R-Grand Rapids) and U.S. Rep. Charles Diggs Jr. (D-Detroit).
“For the war against poverty will not be won here in Washington. It must be won in the field, in every private home, in every public office, from the courthouse to the White House,” Johnson added. “The program I shall propose will emphasize this cooperative approach to help that one-fifth of all American families with incomes too small to even meet their basic needs.”
Over the next couple of years, Congress approved elements of Johnson’s proposal. For example, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 allowed the federal government to establish a number of social efforts to facilitate education, health, employment and welfare for poor Americans as part of Johnson’s Great Society agenda. He also signed Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act legislation in 1965.
“These programs are obviously not for the poor or the underprivileged alone,” Johnson said. “Every American will benefit by the extension of social security to cover the hospital costs of their aged parents. Every American community will benefit from the construction or modernization of schools, libraries, hospitals and nursing homes, from the training of more nurses and from the improvement of urban renewal in public transit. And every individual American taxpayer and every corporate taxpayer will benefit from the earliest possible passage of the pending tax bill from both the new investment it will bring and the new jobs that it will create.”
Johnson was elected to a full term as president in November 1964. In March 1968, he announced that he would not seek reelection amid criticism of his handling of the Vietnam War. He died in 1973 at age 64.
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