The Great
Society
Presentation created by Robert L. Martinez
Primary Content Source: Speaking of America, Volume II, Laura Belmonte
A History of US by Joy Hakim
Images as cited.
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• Some people are born to be preachers and
some to be teachers and some to be
ballplayers. Lyndon Baines Johnson was
born to be a politician.
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LBJ on the front porch of his boyhood
home in Johnson City, Texas, from his
youth to his later years.
The Martinez women sitting on
LBJ’s front porch.
• LBJ was 29 when he was first elected to
Congress. Right away, he arranged to meet
President Franklin Roosevelt.
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• Afterward, FDR said, “ I’ve just met a most
remarkable young man…this boy could
well be the first southern president [in a
century.]”
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In 1934, Lyndon marries
Claudia “Lady Bird” Taylor.
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• Johnson got the government to help finance
low-cost housing in Austin, Texas. And he
insisted that Mexican-Americans and blacks
have a fair share of the new houses.
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He brought electricity to the Texas Hill
Country, his proudest accomplishment.
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• Twelve years after entering Congress,
Lyndon Johnson was elected to the
Senate. Four years after that, he was
elected Senate Majority Leader.
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My daughter sitting in front of the “Texas White House”
at the president’s ranch, just north of San Antonio.
Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt greets
Lyndon Baines Johnson
• John F. Kennedy recruits LBJ to be his
vice-presidential running mate for the 1960
presidential elections.
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After Kennedy’s tragic assassination in
Dallas, LBJ becomes president of the
United States.
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• The Kennedy’s had served gourmet meals in
the White House dining room. The Johnsons
would serve bowls of chili to their guests.
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• President Johnson knew how to twist arms
in Congress. He soon began to get
Kennedy’s programs passed in Congress.
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• Johnson called his vision the Great
Society. It was a vision of a place where
there was no poverty; where all children
were well schooled; where health care was
a birthright.
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• Johnson didn’t want to be an accidental
president. He wanted to be elected
president himself. He soon had the chance
during the 1964 elections.
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• LBJ got the biggest popular vote ever! And
he also got a Congress that had a
Democratic majority. Now, he had the
Congressional support to see his Great
Society succeed.
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• On January 8, 1964, President Johnson
tells Congress that he is declaring a war on
poverty.
• LBJ’s Headstart programs helped little
children prepare for kindergarten.
• LBJ changed Social Security by
establishing Medicare and Medicaid.
Medicare provided hospital insurance and
low-cost medical insurance for almost
every American age 65 or older.
• Medicaid extended health
insurance for welfare recipients.
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• Johnson gets landmark legislation passed.
• Johnson pushed the Civil Rights Act of
1964 . It prohibited discrimination based
on race, religion, national origin, and sex
and granted the federal government new
enforcement powers.
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Johnson passed the Voting Rights Act of
1965, outlawing discriminatory voting
requirements such as “literacy” tests to
discourage minority voters.
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• Soon there were very few homeless people
in America. We could afford the war on
poverty, until something else began taking
most of our money. That was the war in
Vietnam.
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• American soldiers were now fighting in
Vietnam. But things weren’t going the way
we hoped. The North Vietnamese didn’t
seem to be frightened by America’s power.
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• Johnson’s military advisers kept telling him
to send more men and more weapons to
Vietnam.
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But some of America’s citizens were saying
that the war was a mistake. They thought we
needed to quit the war. Johnson didn’t want
to be a quitter.
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• In the end, the cost of the Vietnam War
would cripple the goals of the Great Society.
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• President Johnson surprised the nation,
announcing that he would not pursue
re-election in 1968.
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“The Great Society has been shot
down on the battlefields of
Vietnam.” - LBJ
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