SWBAT: Describe the impact
of Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great
Society on America
Do Now:
a) LBJ Video and Questions
The Great Society
1. Describe the area where Lyndon Johnson grew
up.
2. Who did Johnson have a deep and genuine
compassion for? Give an example of how he helped
this group.
3. What were some of the programs Johnson was
able to get approved after he was elected to
Congress?
4. How did Johnson become President of the United
States?
5. What was the goal of Johnson’s Great Society
program and who did it benefit?
Lyndon B. Johnson – Democrat –
36th President of the United States
(1963-1969)
Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as
President of the United States on
November 22, 1963 aboard Air Force
One after the assassination of JFK.
•Johnson’s domestic policies were
called the Great Society and his
goals were to reduce poverty and
racial injustice and promote a better
quality of life in the United States.
•Elected in 1964 with the largest
popular vote in United States
History.
Creation of New Cabinet
Positions
1. Department of Housing and
Urban Development - to increase
homeownership, support community
development and increase access to
affordable housing free from
discrimination.
2. Department of Transportation
- to develop and coordinate policies
that will provide an efficient and
economical national transportation
system, with due regard for need, the
environment, and the national
defense.
“Daisy” Ad – Election of 1964
Watch the Campaign Ad “Daisy”
for LBJ in 1964 and write your
reaction to the commercial below:
Great Society Speech
1.What type of document is this and who is the
audience?
2.What is the message of this document?
3.What sorts of government programs do you
think President Johnson would support, based on
this document?
The Great Society
Major Great Society Programs
• War on Poverty: forty programs that were
intended to eliminate poverty by improving
living conditions and enabling people to lift
themselves out of the cycle of poverty.
• Education: sixty separate bills that provided
for new and better-equipped classrooms,
minority scholarships, and low-interest
student loans.
• Medicare & Medicaid: guaranteed health
care to every American over sixty-five and to
low-income families.
• The Environment: introduced measures to
protect clean air and water.
• National Endowment for the Arts and
the Humanities: government funding for
artists, writers and performers.
• Head Start: program for four- and five-yearold children from low-income families.
Was the Great Society
1) Who wrote this?
What is the author’s
What are three pieces of
successful?
2) What is his perspective?
main argument?
evidence that the author uses
3) What do you predict the
author will say?
PRO
Great
Society/
War on
Poverty
CON
Great
Society/
War on
Poverty
Which author do you find more convincing and why?
to support his claims?
Was the Great Society
successful?
1) Who wrote this?
What is the author’s
What are three pieces of
PRO
Great
Society/
War on
Poverty
2) What is his perspective?
3) What do you predict the
author will say?
main argument?
Joseph Califano, Jr., became a
special assistant to President
Johnson in
July 1965, and served as
President Johnson's senior
domestic policy aide for the
remainder of Johnson's term.
The Great Society
program has
transformed American
society for the better.
evidence that the author uses
to support his claims?
•
•
•
CON
Great
Society/
War on
Poverty
Thomas Sowell is a conservative
economist, author, and social
commentator. He is currently a
Senior Fellow at the Hoover
Institution at
Stanford University.
Improvements in
society were already
taking place years
before the Civil Rights
Movement and the
creation of the Great
Society Programs.
•
•
•
the portion of Americans living
below the poverty line dropped
from 22.2 percent to 12.6
percent
nearly 60 percent of fulltime
undergraduate students
receive federal financial aid
under Great Society programs.
Since 1965, 79 million
Americans have signed up for
Medicare.
brand-new government
housing projects almost
immediately became new
centers of crime and quickly
degenerated (declined) into
new slums.
The murder rate had also been
going down, for decades, and
in 1960 was just under half of
what it had been in 1934.
The poverty rate among black
families fell from 87 percent in
LBJ
Apply your knowledge - After
watching the video – Answer
the following question
Why did Johnson not run for reelection in 1968?