Chapter 3 - History and Responses to the War on Poverty Anti-Poverty Policies

Summary

President Lyndon B. Johnson assumed office in November 1963, after John F. Kennedy's assassination. Johnson declared an unconditional war on poverty in 1964, which was based on Kennedy's domestic programs, called The New Frontier that promised to outlaw segregation in federally supported housing (but not much else for civil rights), a higher minimum wage, federal aid for low-income housing and education, and hospital insurance for retirees. Lyndon B. Johnson agreed to tackle the poverty problem because it was an issue that was close to his heart. Having grown up in poverty and working during his adult life on policies that expanded opportunities, Johnson was eager to assist poor Americans he recognized the great need in America, making the anti-poverty programs his number one legislative priority. The anti-poverty programs of the War on Poverty went to Congress and were signed into law on August 20, 1964, which created a new agency, the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO).

Congress and President Kennedy quickly implemented three initiatives that prefigured the War on Poverty. The first consisted of efforts to reform welfare. In 1962, the Kennedy administration won congressional approval for public welfare amendments that increased federal funding for training social workers and expanding services to recipients. The amendments were aimed to get people off welfare by encouraging and fostering conventional families and jobs; the method used would be intensive casework that involved counseling for self-esteem and life skills that might include job training and job placement. The people who planned the War on Poverty forged ahead with the same old conventional assumptions that the poor needed services and personal rehabilitation rather than a federal jobs program and more money. The second initiative was another program that linked concerns about structural unemployment and poverty. On May 1, 1961, Congress passed the Redevelopment Act, and as a result, depressed mining, textile, railroad, and fishing communities could apply for grants and loans to improve public facilities and attract new businesses. The third initiative that prefigured the War on Poverty was the Manpower Development and Training Act (MDTA) of March 25, 1962. The notion behind this Act was the belief that rapid technological change, often called “automation” was pushing well-paid workers out of jobs and into poverty, eventually becoming a program for the poor and disadvantaged.