The Great Society

Angela BrownChapter 19 Section 2

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Learning Targets:

1. Describe Johnson’s path to the White House.

2. List some of the programs and effects of Johnson’s Great Society.

3. Identify some of the landmark cases handed down by the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren.

LBJ’s Path to the White House • House of Representatives in 1937 –

New Deal Democrat from Texas

• 1948 Senate by 87 votes

• Johnson became famous for ability to work within the political system to accomplish his goals.

Johnson

• Bid for democratic nomination failed in 1960

• Agreed to vice-presidential position but soon frustrated by powerlessness of office – missed Congress

Building the Great Society • Swift passage of Kennedy’s Civil

Rights and tax bills followed the assassination.

• Johnson branched out; he sought laws to aid public education, provide medical care for elderly and eliminate poverty.

• 1964 called goals the Great Society

The Election of 1964

• Landslide victory for Johnson over Barry Goldwater.

• (486 to 52 electoral votes – 61% of popular vote)

• Democrats established a majority in both houses.

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Barry Goldwater

• Goldwater’s conservative views seemed radical to Americans.

• He opposed Civil Rights legislation and believed military commanders should be allowed to use nuclear bombs as they saw fit in battle.

The Tax Cut

• Believed a budget deficit could be used to help the economy

• Johnson agreed to cut government spending to get tax cut through Congress.

• GNP rose 7.1% in 1964; 8.1 % in 1865; 9.5% in 1966 – the deficit shrank

• The revival of prosperity generated new tax revenues – unemployment fell, and inflation remained in check

The War on Poverty

• The Economic Opportunity Act of 1954 was created to combat illiteracy, unemployment, and inadequate public services - $950 million.

• Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) sent volunteers to help in poor communities.

Aid to Education

• Elementary and Secondary Education Act provided aid to states based on # of children from low-income homes.

• ($1.3 billion to both public and private schools)

• 1965 Head Start Program was created to prepare economically disadvantaged preschoolers for school.

• Today serves 11 million children under age five.

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Medicare and Medicaid

• Medicare provided hospital and low-cost medical insurance for most American age 65 and older.

• Medicaid provided low-cost health insurance for poor Americans of any age.

• Most important Social Welfare legislation since the passage of Social Security Act in 1935

• Demonstrated government commitment to provide help to those Americans who needed it.

Immigration Reform

• Immigration Act of 1965 eliminated quotas for individual countries and replaced them with more flexible limits

• 170,000 from Eastern Hemisphere

• 120,000 from Western Hemisphere

• Family members of U.S. citizens exempt from quotas, as were political refugees.

• 20,000 maximum from any one country

• 1960’s 350,000 immigrants per year; 1970’s 400,000

Earl Warren

• Law degree University of California at Berkley

• District attorney, attorney General of California, Governor, Republican Vice-Presidential candidate in 1948

• Appointed Chief Justice of U.S. by President Eisenhower in 1953 served until retirement in 1969

Earl Warren

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• Overturned many old laws to establish new legal precedents

• (Brown v Board of Education, Connecticut law against birth control, prayer in public schools unconstitutional)

Criminal Procedure

• Concerned to safeguard constitutional rights of individuals against power of state

• 1961 Mapp v Ohio – evidence seized illegally could not be used in a trial

• 1963 Gideon v. Wainwright – suspects in criminal cases who could not afford attorney were given free legal aid

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• 1964 Escobedo v Ilinois – accused must be given access to an attorney while being questioned

• 1966 Miranda v Arizona – suspect must be warned of rights before being questioned = Miranda Rule

Congressional Reapportionment • Apportionment – distribution of a

legislative body’s seats among electoral district’s

• Most state governments had not redistributed districts to reflect population shifts.

• Rural citizens were over-represented and urban citizens were under-represented.

• 1962 Baker v Carr – declared congressional districts had to be apportioned “one person, one vote”.

Reapportionment

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• Today each of the 435 seats in the House represents an average of 665,000 persons

• 1964 Reynolds v Sims – not based on “one person, one vote” violated equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment

• Many decisions were controversial.• People believed court had gone to far and

hoped for more conservative judges.

Effects of the Great Society • At first very popular – New Programs

raised expectations

• Disillusionment followed when not all demands could be met.

• Complained too many tax dollars spent on poor

• Too much authority in hands of federal government

• Number of people living in poverty cut in half during the 1960s and 1970s.

• Some complained not enough money spent by government.

Exit Slip:

1. A major part of Johnson’s Great Society was….

2. Several of the decisions of the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren focused on…

3. Critics of the Great Society complained that it…