The War on Poverty, part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society program, aimed to help the newly recognized poor across the United States during the 1960s.
Before his assassination in 1963, President John
F. Kennedy asked his council of economic advisers to investigate poverty within the United States. Kennedy, like many others, had read Michael Harrington’s The Other America, a book that in 1962, brought attention to the issue of poverty in America. Johnson, after taking over as president, felt the need to continue this effort to investigate and help the poor. In his State of the Union address in 1964, Johnson said, “This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional War on Poverty in America.”
In the 1960s, poverty was different than it had been in the 1930s. During the 1960s, the economy was booming and plenty of jobs were available, but the poor were often undereducated, malnourished, and unable to find decent homes and jobs. The children of the poor suffered from an inability to escape the vicious cycle of poverty. Johnson and his advisers recognized the need to research the cause and manifestations of poverty within American society and launch an integrated assault.
Johnson believed that his War on Poverty benefited not only the poor but had a positive effect on the morality and economy of the nation. Since the problem of poverty was a fairly new concern to the federal government, many, including Johnson, were not always sure how to proceed. The administration used many different approaches and techniques to combat the problem, recognizing that some would inevitably fail. The increased effort to investigate the causes and sources of poverty, many hoped, would point the government in the right direction.
The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 was a key part of the program. It sought to help the poor find work through such agencies as the Job Corps, which provided funds for employment of the young.
The War on Poverty included many types of programs aimed at helping people out of both urban and rural poverty. Training programs prepared unskilled workers for jobs, and housing programs provided better homes and living environments, especially within slums and ghettos. Johnson’s plan gave aid to schools and tried to stop poverty from impeding students’ success. Head Start was a nursery and kindergarten program for underprivileged children, while Upward Bound gave poor talented children a chance to attend college. Health programs gave medical care to those who lacked it or had received poor care in the past. The elderly received increased Social Security stipends, and the Food Stamp program provided assistance to those without enough money to buy groceries. Meanwhile, Johnson continued to push for civil rights legislation to aid African Americans and gain an equal footing in the United States.
The War on Poverty relied on local initiatives as well as federal action. The Office of Economic Opportunity supervised Community Action Program projects, which fought poverty with locally controlled programs in areas including job training, community health, housing, and home management.
Johnson once said of the poor, “They have no voice and no champion. Whatever the cost, I was determined to represent them. Through me they would have an advocate and, I believed, new hope.” His War on Poverty was the first coordinated national effort to combat intensively the problems of the poor, an effort that had been previously limited to charitable groups.
When Johnson left the White House in 1969, 36 percent of Americans had been lifted out of poverty. Though the success was not as great as hoped, the Johnson administration played an important role in helping those poor who needed assistance most.
Further reading: Paul K. Conkin, Big Daddy from the Pedernales: Lyndon Baines Johnson (Boston: Twayne, 1986); Lyndon B. Johnson, The Vantage Point (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971).
— Jennifer Parson
Warren, Earl (1891-1974) chief justice of the United States
Earl Warren, chief justice of the Supreme Court between 1953-69, strongly favored the protection of civil liberties and civil rights.
Warren was born in Los Angeles, California, on March 19, 1891. He received his undergraduate degree in political science as well as a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley. Graduating near the bottom of his class with only a C average in law school, he nonetheless passed the California state bar examination at the age of 23 and began to practice law in San Francisco. He held various local political offices, and he served as district attorney of Alameda County, California, from 1925 to 1939. After moving up the state government ladder in 1939, Warren was elected attorney general of California, a position he retained for four years.
Warren next won election as governor of California in 1942. As a liberal Republican, he garnered the support of both Democrats and Republicans to win a stunning victory. During his second term as governor, Warren opposed loyalty oaths required by the Board of Regents for all state employees as a part of the anticommunist cru-
Supreme Court Justices (left to right) William O. Douglas, Stanley Reed, Chief Justice Earl Warren, Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter, and others stand with President Eisenhower on the White House steps, 1953. (Library of Congress)
Sade, and he later saw them invalidated by the California Supreme Court.
Before he could finish his second term as governor, Republican presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey selected Warren as his vice presidential running mate in the election of 1948 against President Harry S. Truman. After they were defeated in a stunning upset, Warren was elected governor by the people of California to a third term in 1950. In his own quest for the presidency in 1952, he was swept aside by the entrance of General Dwight D. Eisenhower into the race. In return for Warren’s support, Eisenhower promised him a seat on the U. S. Supreme Court.
When Chief Justice Fred Vinson died in 1954, Eisenhower made good on his promise, and Warren became chief justice. Warren began his first term by orchestrating a decision that upheld equal rights for African Americans. In Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Warren pushed hard for a unanimous 9-0 vote by personally persuading all justices initially opposed that the case ending school segregation was so charged that it demanded unanimity.
Warren took a liberal stance on other cases as well. In Galyan v. Press (1954), the Court upheld the government’s right to deport anyone who was an alleged member of the Communist Party and an alien in the United States even if the person had renounced party membership. In a change of heart, the Court began to protect the rights of communists. In Watkins v. United States (1957), it ruled that the efforts of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) would no longer be tolerated; it was subsequently dissolved in 1975 because of its abuse of congressional power. In Yates v. United States (1957), the Court overturned the convictions of 14 communists convicted under the Smith Act, which prohibited advocating the violent overthrow of the government, thereby reversing its decision in Dennis v. United States (1951), handed down just six years earlier.
Warren also sought to reform the criminal justice system to protect the rights and liberties of all individuals. In Miranda v. Arizona (1966), the Warren Court ruled that the police must inform a criminal suspect that he or she had the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney before any questioning could proceed. This case also guaranteed that a person who could not afford an attorney would have one appointed by the court.
In Reynolds v. Sims (1964), Warren helped craft a majority ruling that representation in state legislatures must be based on population. In Engel v. Vitale (1962), Warren and the majority banned prayer in public schools.
Warren also served as head of the Warren Commission, convened in November 1963 by President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The 15-person panel concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and his murder by Jack Ruby did not constitute actions that were part of a foreign or a domestic conspiracy. Despite criticism of Warren, he stood by the conclusion of that report.
In 1968, the year Warren announced his retirement, Alabama governor George C. Wallace accused Warren of having done “more to destroy constitutional government in this century than any one man.” Eisenhower, displeased with the liberal stance Warren favored, considered his appointment of Warren as chief justice the “biggest damn-fool mistake I ever made.” Earl Warren died in 1974.
Further reading: Jack Harrison Pollack, Earl Warren: The Judge Who Changed America (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice Hall, 1979); Mark Tushnet, The Warren Court in Historical and Political Perspective (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993); John D. Weaver Warren: The Man, the Court, the Era (Boston: Little, Brown, 1967).
—John E. Bibish IV
World History
