Examines the development of the us. Well, first state the way americans have gone about making social provision for themselves. Social provision includes the range of programs at reducing risk or enhancing quality of life. As you know, our focus has on the specific issue of poor relief because relief of poverty seems to present the american system with its most intractable, intractable problem. And im going to depart from our usual format here a little bit. Im going to do a fair amount of reading this afternoon because im concerned about covering all the material that we have to cover over the course of our exploration of the construction of the american welfare. Weve encountered several different persistent themes. A among these are the idea that in the united states, social provision is divided, public and private institutions. Public provide government provides welfare programs. The public like shapes welfare their programing through the tax system on the private end, as discussed, private entities provide Charity Philanthropy and importantly american employers provide the bulk of social welfare benefits. Another theme is the experimentation with institutional forms. Weve worked our way through outdoor relief. The idea that impoverished families supported by payments in cash or kind and remain in their own homes. Indoor relief of dickensian poor houses and the like, the the american system has tended to accommodate both forms simultaneous, constantly arguing back and about which one is preferable or at least least harmful. A third consideration is for the american system. Is the importance the pivotal role of relief as mechanisms for managing workforce. I think normally we think of poor relief as necessarily being aimed at relieving poverty, but in fact at the level of policymaking, relief is often about making sure that employers have access to a stable workforce and that concern is a shaping factor throughout the policies that we have looked at. A fourth theme has the tension in all of these between american commitment to compassion. The american idea that we are responsible for one another and that communities will take care of Vulnerable People within them that that is constantly at war with a commitment to instilling discipline, a commitment to work, to creating citizens are capable of being selfsufficient and establishing independence. Those those two pieces, compassion on the one hand, and commitment to, workforce discipline seem constantly to be at war with one another. A corollary of that, because we we operate these programs with warring underlying them. Its also true that we cannot completely make up our minds about what our goal for any of these programs. Is or are we attempting to facilitate a stable workforce in a complicated capitalist society . If so certain policy moves are presumably in order . Or are we trying to rid ourselves of policy of to express compassion . Which what what are we trying attempt here. Today . Less last week we left off with examination of the Social SecuritySocial Security act of 1935, the new deal legislation that laid the foundation for American Social provision and created the framework in which social provision operates to this day in todays session, were going to take up the Great Society phase of the development of american poor and poverty policy. The Great Society is a moniker for the ambitious Domestic Program launched the Johnson Administration in 1964. Lyndon johnsons for remaking American Life were expansive, not to say bottomless. We are interested here in what was for him a core element of his program of this Great Program that is the war on poverty, that war on multiple fronts fronts during his tenure, Congress Passed important landmark legislation providing for federal support of public education, for expanded job training, for access, for renewed access to health care. This includes the creation of the medicare and medicaid programs, a recommitment to public subsidized housing. This included the creation of the department of housing and development and a commitment also to new approaches to urban development, including the Community Action programs that were part of the the on poverty legislation. Each of these elements was front in the war on poverty, but within the scope were hints of attack on poverty. Were going to be scrutinizing here today what you are reading about in the Gareth Davies material is Economic Opportunity act of 1964. This is the act that created the war on poverty and just for it will go through a little bit of its operation. But just to lay out here its structure so you know the act was comprised of five titles each of them attacking poverty on a different front. So we have job training in the job corps and Work Experience titles one in five. We have different sorts of business and economic assistance in titles three and four including assistance, impoverished Rural Communities who loom larger. We tend to forget poverty is not strictly an urban phenomenon in the united states. As as we learned in looking at what new deal researchers uncover when they went to the dakotas in the 1930s, the the key piece, the most dynamic element of the Economic Opportunity act turns out to have been the Community Action program created title two. And we will discuss that further. Community Community Action in brief took the view poverty only be addressed effective through comprehensive. That included the elements that are touched on in these other titles. A strategy to attack attack poverty had to think about job training, education, housing as well as where people were getting income from the Community Title also took the position that the only way that kind planning could get done effectively is if the people who were going to be subject to the plan, were involved in the planning. So the Community Action program set up a system whereby the federal government would make direct funding to grassroots groups around the country to plan and then to monitor the implementation of Community Wide anti poverty plans. This proved to be dinner, productive and highly controversial as well see. Note that the Economic Opportunity act did not address poor relief directly. It did not change. It did not provide for income assistance. On thursday. We will be talking using the quadrennial readings about the afdc aid to families with dependent children and how the Johnson Administration dealt with that program during during johnsons the in brief of afdc payments were significantly raised under johnson and other programs were instituted for example in 1964 formalization of the food program. But we know today is work so thats the layout were working through this the arc were digging through the the archeology the the of the american system starting in the cellar, working way up. Weve the ground Floor Foundation with the new deal were now working on the Great Society material. And within the Great Society were dealing today with the Economic Opportunity act on thursday, well be dealing with afdc in greater depth. So why in general or for our project does this matter. What were trying to do here is to identify the contributions that Great Society policy making made to the development, the american system of social provision and the significance of the Great Society effort is as a window into the dynamics of the american with poverty and how should be addressed as with all phases of the development of American Social welfare policy, the Great Society built on the institutional architecture erected, bypassed Great Society builds on new deal, new built, new deal built on mothers pensions. Mothers pensions built on war, pensions and on and on. Equally, the Great Society grappled with americans endemic ambivalence concerning social provision. We hope to build a compassionate society, but we also pride ourselves our independence and selfsufficiency and seek to support those qualities, our ethics of work and personal responsibility. So the question again, how is policy to be designed to meet that first objective compassion while respecting the second discipline and independ ence in addressing these challenges. The Great Societys war on poverty was in several ways, and you here innovations with regard to goals, with regard to approaches with regard to relation to social movements. So what am i speaking about here with regard to goals, the war on poverty expressed significantly larger concerning poverty and enhancement of american quality of life than any previous reform. It also a substantially expanded role government in achieving those goals. Johnson asked americans imagine a nation where poverty been ended by and through the efforts of the people working through their government. These were new ideas. How about policy approaches . Again, im here in particular to the Community Action, the war on poverty thus recognized the systemic nature of poverty, something that weve been waiting for policymakers to do throughout our readings. Right . So here were finally seeing americans saying, yes, poverty is maybe not simply about failings, maybe theres something bigger going on, recognizing systemic nature of poverty. The war on poverty sought to address it. Thus, the Community Action program created by the Economic Opportunity act drew together multiple anti initiatives addressing education, workforce development, urban planning, which previously operated in their separate silos. Its strategy was to attack in the specific communities where it predominated, it folded antipoverty initiatives into one comprehensive attack the conditions of poverty and engage residents of impoverished communities in planning and implementing it. So so one aspect that you want to pick up here is that for the war on poverty program, poverty was linked to poverty was, linked to city neighborhoods or Rural Communities in which it occurred. And the strategy for attacking poverty thus dealt with particular places and particular groups of planners impact of social movements. I hope youre. Well, you may be seeing in the data is reading that rather differently from the phases of Welfare Policy Development weve looked at thus far in case of the Great Society, the war on poverty was uniquely influenced. Grassroots pressure. The war was launched amidst the tumult of the sixties. In fact, it contributed to heightening that tumult. Great society initiatives helped to amplify voices previously sidelined in american political discourse, importantly, those of africanamerican women and poor people themselves in the pressures of a volatile in the sixties, policymakers heard and to these voices. Ultimately the to me the war on poverty is is because its so directly. Tests american values. In the war on poverty we see a direct confrontation between these values of compassion and discipline that that ive been to you the war on poverty thus tested the potency of the American Dream. The American Dream being the idea of america as a place of opportunity for all the war on poverty. That by testing whether policy could extend that opportunity to all americans, the war on poverty was confronted with and grappled directly with the possibility that modern americas economy could not be restructured to provide for all. And that jury fixes like the dole would be necessary to lift the american poor from poverty. The dole, meaning we give up. Were not going to try to this in any kind of systematic way. We will just write checks. Thats the best we can do. A war on policy, one poverty policy makers retained the doubt that a dole or any kind of forced redistribution could achieve the end of poverty or that the would not fatally undermine other aspects of the poverty that americans deem essential specifically the hope of becoming a nation of independent and selfsufficient equals. So lets lay out the background of the Economic Opportunity act attempt and bear with me. Im going to go through some background pieces just to get those pieces laid out and then we will get to the act itself. Okay, so, so background, is that all about Great Society intervention into american poverty built on existing structures for provision of relief and operated within a preexisting framework of values relating to Compassion Community and work with regard to institutional structures again as saw in particular in the new deal materials and issue four of welfare provision at the National Level was were programs to be structured as insurance or structured as assistance Insurance Programs like Social Security were those in which benefits were based in part on contributions paid in by beneficiaries. And these programs were more respected than assistance programs, programs like aid to families, dependent children, afdc which operated as a public grant or dole to the needy. Second set of distinctions are national or state. These these two tend to track one another. Social security as a National Program administered, the federal government provided a more stable stream of benefits and one that was consistent across regions a more stable than state administered programs like, for example, Unemployment Compensation or aid to families with children. So the there a clear hierarchy here and the youre youre always safer if youre on the insurance side of the equation and if youre on the National Side of the equation insurance and national means, for example, what we know as Social Security those monthly checks to older people, afdc is both assistance weaker and state controlled weaker again, leaving people more vulnerable. So this this is the institutional set of structures that the war on poverty going to have to figure out how to how to build on again the war on poverty has to engage these values that been talking about and i guess what im arguing here is that the Johnson Program felt that maybe it had solved this problem, just maybe it had to come up with way to meld our commitment to compassion the american commitment compassion for those among us who are in need with the american commitment to, independence, selfsufficiency, go getter ism. And the way this was going to operate was creating a program thats that relied the health of the American Economy and had faith that that economy could provide for everybody, if only access could be opened up. The program as its task. The opening up, it recognized the economy was not open to all and took as its task the opening up of the economy. If that could work, then maybe american could both demonstrate compassion while sticking to their ribbed commitment to economic independence independence. So we want to i want to look with you at a couple of pieces, couple of back of background pieces that said. In two shaping the program. Think as we as weve gone through these programs weve been trying to establish in each phase of American Development what the Historical Context of Program Development has been, what kinds of values are kinds of and kinds of social. Each phase of the program on so lets lets try to do that here for the war on poverty. I want to raise some issues contemporary ideologies some of the contemporary experiments are going on in the realm of poverty policy prior the Economic Opportunity act. And then we need to mention a couple of things about lyndon johnson, who was without a doubt a factor in this in this development. So starting with ideology, i have three notable notable public intellectuals or criers in the wilderness. Take your pick to present you, starting with john kenneth galbraith, who in 1958 published the society. Galbraith was an economist. He was part the court of camelot with the Kennedy Administration. He remained, as an advisor to johnson, he is a was a tremendously urbane, witty, gracious, public intellectual. He published often and in the case of the affluent society, he was indicting americans. We are now in 1958. Were moving toward the end of the fifties. We mired in eisenhower stability. We are stealing our wealth as a society we are still sitting on top of the world diplomatically. We still view ourselves as the nation that one, the second world war. Were not we havent discussed that yet with the russians. And galbraith says around what is it that you are actually and he he makes this he levels this charge he says take typical American Family out for a week weekend outing. The family which takes its mauve and saris air conditioned power steering and power braked automobile out for tour passes through cities that are badly paved made hideous by litter blight of buildings, billboards and posts for wires that should long since have been put. They pass on into a countryside that has rendered largely invisible by commercial art. They picnic on exquisitely packaged foods from a portable icebox by a polluted stream and go on to spend the night at a park, which is a a menace to health and morals. Just before dozing off on an air mattress beneath a nylon tent. Amid the stench of decaying refuse, they may reflect vaguely on the curious unevenness of their blessings. Is this indeed the american genius . Galbraiths point was that throughout the in the postwar era, what americans had been doing is at an accelerated rate, feathering their private nests and feeling their private all well and good but he said, look around. We are starving. The public sector. And then what do you have left . What you have left is an expensive car in which you venture out in a in a society, into a society, in ruins. He called this private opulence and public squalor, and he challenged americans to think more systematically about how their wealth might better be used. Great uncle sam, youre rolling in dough. All you get out of it are aluminum fins on your cars, air conditioning in your homes. Isnt there something more than that you would like to achieve as a society . Second indictment. Harry coddle knht comes to the cumberland coddle was a hes a kentuckian. He an historian. He was a kentucky legislator. He was a folklorist he was an environmental activist. And he wrote night to to dam. And he effectively dammed the big coal operators who were despoilingoth e land and the people of appalachia. His efforts. This book night comes to the cumberland did get Public Notice it promoted by a columnist in the New York Times homer bigot and lays claim to having spurred the kennedy effort, which johnson picked up and expanded for appalachian redevelopment. A third example night comes to the cumberland was published in 62. Michael harrington, the other american, also. 1962. Harrington was a. One of dorothy a days catholic workers. He was for many years the editor of, the publication the catholic worker. He was a catholic. He became socialist. He was a journalist. He was an activist. His book, the other america, as i say, published in 62, asserted that as many as a quarter of americans living in poverty. So an aspect of the affluent Society Problem that galbraith pointing out was not only degradation, the environment and city landscapes, but it was also degradation of the people. Harrington used the book show how American Society was structured in ways that affect livelihood. The poor from more affluent people. This book was reviewed in the new yorker by the public intellectual named a public intellectual named macdonald. It caught the attention of the Kennedy Administration and kennedy and just as night comes to the cumberland is a basis for the creation of appalachian redevelopment authority. This book, the other america was clearly a spur to creating the program that became the war on poverty. How about exploring. You have ideology. These these are three authors that are maybe theyre not creating the issue but its noteworthy that that each of these three books caught public. They were hitting on something that. American people apparently were worried and were receptive to. So the other thing we want to look at is contemporary experiments and i wanted to raise three of these with y. The question of juvenile urban development, and actually a little bit more juvenile delinquency in their soing out with the problem of juvenile delinquency which in the and si is what americans that was the term that ams u knew to use for a new development that people were rceiving which was youth were getting out of hand. There was a lot of new music which was disturbing there was a lot of new running around town disrespect for elders, disrespect for the institutions of education, the like. And at out and out petty crime gang and gang delinquency. So this all goes under the juvenile delinquency and if youve ever seen west side story, you are familiar with one of the contemporary comments on that, courtesy of officer crockett. So this example has to do with mobilization for youth and efforts of two sociologists, lloyd olin and richard howard, who at this time i believe, were both at columbia university. And i think i think i have mentioned this to you before. Olin and cloward had helped found an organization on the Lower East Side, new york, called mobilization for youth. They wanted to work with these young people, young men who were being classified as juvenile delinquents. The charge, juvenile delinquency is that their petty criminals and all ends inside out. And this was published in delinquency and opportunity 1960, owns the insight was no these these these boys are not different any other american boy theyre doing exactly what we encourage all american boys to do to be ambitious is to look for a way up to enlarge your your scope. The difference is the boys on the Lower East Side dont have access to any kind of the opportunities that we as a side society approve of. Theyre not to go to a four year college. They dont have access to job training. So the solution is maybe not to try to fix kid. The kid is fine. The solution is opportune to do ladders. These boys are climbing opportunity ladders, but the wrong opportunity ladders, if we to change this, then what we have to do is provide different ladders. So said oakland, the boy who joins a gang is in a rut. He has aspirations but no place to go with them. This set of insights became a chunk of the theory around which the war on poverty was built. This is a this is kind of a core piece. The Community Action program. What we need to do here, we dont were not about fixing individual people. They dont need it. Were about creating opportunity ladders. A second example is what the the Ford Foundation was up to the Gray Areas Program this goes to this this question of comprehensiveness the insight that if you want to poverty you cant person by person or even Program Program you have to look at poverty something that occurs within a community and figure out how to various aspects of poverty within that community, its good to provide job training, but job training is not to get you there. If everyone is living in impossible housing, if people dont have decent schools that they can send their eight year olds to and the like like. The Gray Areas Program, targeted improvements to physical and social and to Service Delivery systems in impoverished urban neighborhoods. It was an approach to place based reform. These previously had typically been scattershot, separate efforts aimed one at education, one at employment, one at health. What the gray areas did under paul orgel sacker, the director who who managed this. The gray areas inside was have to combine those separate initiatives into a comprehensive area wide attempt. The gray areas also did something that was picked later by the Community Action program, which is that it involved residents in creating these programs instead of marching in and saying to people, we have a plan going to be good for you, they tried with some success to move in communities and and ask people what needs to be done here. How can we help . It was a new approach. A third effort, which i mentioned, because it involves us here in d. C. And because it was particularly close to the kennedy and Johnson Administration was the president s kennedy, president kennedys Commission Excuse me, committee on juvenile delinquency. This was headed by Robert Kennedy at that time the attorney general of the united states. And it involved, in effect, attempt to start a project similar to a Gray Areas Program here in d. C. In the cardozo what was then called the cardozo neighborhood today, we would call it Columbia Heights and mount pleasant. Robert kennedy spearheaded that manage that and this is important in particular because meant that kennedy troubled himself to get some firsthand views of both conditions in impoverished urban neighborhoods and in what it took to address conditions in those neighborhoods. So we have a set of new ideological insights, so to say, in causal and galbraith and harrington, we have these kind of expert mental feelers out. Well try gray areas. Well try ladders to opportunity for june four, so called juvenile delinquents. The other piece that i want to put on table here is johnson himself. Lyndon johnsons character was to say the least, complex encompass, seeing both ferocious ambition and, deep reservoirs of compassion, traits that at time worked in tandem and at times not his chief interest on the presidency was in domestic, and his concept of what reform required was shaped by his texas upbringing. So what was that . Johnson was born in hill country. This is farm farmland, just to the west of of austin. He tended to over dramatize the extent of his childhood poverty. He he he worked that angle pretty hard. But in truth, he did come up in a family. His father, sam here, was never able to establish himself professionally in any kind of secure way. The the family constantly rocked by financial his mother rebecca was the pillar in this i expect that she was at times annoying but she had higher aspirations for her husband, for her family, and especially for her oldest son, lyndon. Bottom line, johnson, an early age, knew about economic struggle, if not flat out, wolf, at the door. Poverty, then about what it meant to to be dismissed as. As an as as a failure. Dismissed as an economic failure. Look, look down upon. An important piece of the johnson background is his time at cotulla. Cotulla, this was one of hnns first jobs. It was during a year that he took away from college and during which heerved as a schoolteacher in the tiny texas of cotulla. This a touchstonofis later. His students were impoverished young mexicanamericans, an johnson did all that he could for them. And now im going to try to read this quote. Lets see if i can even get through it years later, standing in the will of the house, introducing the war on poverty plans to a joint session of congress, johnson referred to this experience of his this this was the address of march 15th, 1965, in which. Johnson laid out the program. You s first job after college was as a teacher in cotulla, texas, a small mexicanamerican school. Few of them could speak english, and they often came to class without breakfast hungry. They knew even in their youth the pain of prejudice. They never seemed to know why people dislike them, but they knew it was so. I saw it in their eyes. I often walked home wishing ereasore that i could do. You never forget what poverty and hatred can do when see its scars on the hopeful face of a young child. I never thought then in 1928 that i would be standing here. In 1965 that i might have the chance to help the sons and daughters of those students and people like them all over the country. But now i do have that chance, and ill let you in on a secret. I mean, to use it. The biographers, evans and novak novak report that the next day johnson was in his office, and a friend complimented him on his speech and asked who wrote it and the report is that johnson pulled from his desk. This picture and said. They did. A third factor in the upbringing that is perhaps immediately relevant is johnsons as the head of the new Deal National youth administratn branch. The the National Youth administration was chaed this as a new deal program. The idea was to try to find employment for american young people, particularly with the object keeping them somehow in school. Johnson was. Fr fm the from the very first from from his election november of 1932. Johnson was a fan of fdr of this this picture here Young Johnson meeting fdr in an fdr Campaign Swing through texas is captures some of that its also notable because you can find other versions of this that johnson used in Campaign Literature in which the guy in the middle who i think is the governor of texas has been airbrushed out. Hes gone. But this is the original shot and the johnsons and why a experience was noteworthy years later. Robert weaver, who johnson, nominated to become the first secretary of the department of housing and urban development, which and weaver was a approved by the senate, making weaver the first African American member of the cabinet. This is in 1965. And during his confirmation hearings, weaver is before the senate and somebody asks him, well, so what . What draws you to work for this guy . Johnson . Hes a southerner we always understood that he was a pretty conservative southerner. And we were reported with regard to the National Youth administration, quote, i soon heard about this guy down in texas who was shocking some people up on the hill because he thought that the National YouthAdministration Benefits ought to go to poor folks. To make matters worse, he was giving a hell of a lot of this money to. Mexicanamericans and. So like cotulla the experience, solidify johnsons belief in education as, an essential american opportunity. In addition, it brought to him a lifelong belief in the creative of democratic government. Johnson was from his rival in washington. This is congressional aide in the early 1930s and admirer of Franklin Roosevelt and a fully committed supporter of the new deal. He learned his experience that American Government could intervene effectively to improve american lives. Okay, so weve got ideology, weve got experimentation, and weve got the personality quite explosive and dynamic personality of the president. So try to figure out this development here. So political context context, the november 22nd, 1963, assassination of john kennedy martyred the new frontier hopes of a generation americans coming into office in the wake of the tragedy. Johnson the nations grief into political consensus necessary achieve key elements of his predecessor ussrs legislative agenda. Its a its a it was a powerful audience a performance gives the wrong impression. He johnson in that moment of Great National trauma, handled himself with great skill, it is hard to reproduce how traumatic the loss of kennedy those circumstances was for the nation. Kennedy had been the bright hope. Richard nixon, i think, captured it best, nixon said. Its so characteristic. Its its a good comment on and it reveals something i think deeply true about nixon. Nixon said of americans, look at kennedy and they see what they want to be. They look at me and they see what they are. Many hopes were to kennedy and. Johnson found a way to pick up the mantle. The Kennedy Administration had been planning an Antipoverty Program in the months prior to the president s death. Kennedy was determined to pass a major tax cut in order to sicily his Campaign Promise to, quote, get the economy moving again after the eisenhower doldrums. And he wanted to balance this gift, the nations affluent classes with something for the poor. Johnson immediately seized on the program for development in his first state of the union address, congress. Go. Johnson understood that he could ask the american public, think about what kennedy had meant to them, and then ask them to honor kennedy and the kennedy legacy by moving rapidly on the kennedy program, which up until that time, during the three years of the Kennedy Administration had been stalled in the congress. The the magic here is that, as we know, Johnson Robert caro calls him the master, the Senate Johnsons key skill set was in legislation. Legislation. So this this is a person into office who is both determined based on his own background, to promote a policy of poverty, policy reform, and someone whos got a particular set of skills that might enable him to do that. So here is how in this this is the first state of the union address. Hes been in office seven weeks and he says to the congress, in laying out his Program Going forward on unfortunately, Many Americans live on the outskirts of hope, some because of their poverty and some because of their color and too many because of both our task is to help replace their despair with opportunity d. And here he goes. This Administration Today here and declares unconditional war, poverty in america. I urge this congress, all americans, to join with me in that effort. Our chief weapons in more pinpointed attack will be better schools and Better Health and better homes, better training and better Job Opportunities to help more americans, especially Young Americans escape from the squalor and misery and unemployment rolls where other citizens help to carry them. So a couple of things that, you warning lights, kind of go off. Is it wise to, declare unconditional war on Something Like poverty will you know when you have won . Have you set up a metric for that . Is it conceivable that you will have won . If not, are you maybe immediately over promising . And then of course you see this characterized stick and this is something that is folded into the Economic Opportunity act. This all points attack. Were not were not just going to worry about the children. Were going to worry about education and job training and housing and health and on and on goes. So the gantlet has been laid down and its been laid down at a propitious moment in january of 1964. Americans are willing to say, yes, yes, we can still do this. We can we can honor the memory of our lost leader in way it is right that we should do this charge. So several things had to happen first. Yep. The first order of business in the winter of 6364 was to create a federal budget that could the tax cut that lbj intended to make while staying below the 100 billion mark. Kennedy, remember, had the reason that the war on poverty thinking had got going was that kennedy had decided that to get the economy moving again, a tax cut was going to be necessary okay. So the the barons in congress, the mostly and conservative democrats who controlled all the committees in congress, said, well go along with you on this. Only. Only if you show some budget discipline and keep this under the magnificent sum of 100 billion. Johnson was able to pull that off, having achieved an acceptable budget, he was then able to pass the cut. And this actually this 11 billion tax cut, that this is the revenue act of 1964. In fact plays largely, although in the background of our story, it is arguably for the great spurt in Economic Growth and the feeling of prosperity that americans enjoyed during the balance of the sixties only cut short by the increasing pressure of the vietnam war. Having. Passed those two measures. Johnson then did send his Economic Opportunity act to congress. He described it, he said, of the of the act, we have never lost sight of our goal. And america, which every citizen shares all the opportunities of this society, in which every man has a chance to advance his welfare to the limit of his capacities. Notice whats being stressed. This is not relief. Its not a dole. It is opportunity. We we have faith in the American Economy. And our strategy is to restructure that economy, to let everybody in. Johnson in sending the bill to congress, challenged congress today. For the first time in our history, we have the power to strike away the barriers, full participation in our society, having the power we have, the duty. So again, the gantlet was laid down. The again, a reminder the Economic Opportunity act is of the larger Great Program. The this important for the opportunitact because you want to remember title to the Community Action program. What was the Community Action prragoing to do . The idea w that people on the ground were going to be able to look out into thisast array of new federal programs and from from their position onhe ground, knowing what their communities needed were going to be able to picanchoose from among these programs to assemble a plan thatould address their would be tailored to the particular needs of their communities. These this here should give you, i hope some idea of test test test test test by this. Ross ster of new legislation. So what happened. In thinking about the Economic Opportunity act. The useful thing is to think about will and in what ways is this . In what way, if any, is this an innovation different from the way americans have always done . Poverty policy . Does this contribute something new to our mix . Something that either we should discard rapidly or something that we should pick up and integrate moving forward . So starting with, well, what were the what were the innovations. The first was a comprehensive assault. Again, the nothing that roster of programs thate st looked at. Theres nothing here thats radically new in and of itself. B training, improvements to housing, improvements to education. These, for the most part, had been tried before. What is new here is the idea that. If were going to make this work, we have to be serious about it. We do have to look at this as an effort not to solve this one off problem over here and that one off problem over there, but rather put together a package. The result of which will in fact be a restructuring of the Economic Conditions in which American Communities are surviving. So comprehensive is one. The second is this this business Citizen Engagement. This is a little dicey Citizen Engagement work. Do you really mean to tell me that youre going to call my neighbor, mrs. Williams up and invite her down to the Community Center and ask her to to help us plan a new new bus routes or new after School Programs . Is that really what mrs. Williams is best . Is that what what do we want . Mrs. Williams, what kind input do we really want from mrs. Williams . And this is, thats issue that is going to dogged this Program Throughout its throughout his tenure. Nonetheless yes. Arguably a step forward. Ha. Nothing have done has worked all that well. So far. Maybe it would be good to ask the people who are these conditions how they think things ought to be altered. And then a third, innovation. Is the the outside brokenness of the commitment to opportunity. This this commitment to opportunity reflected reflected a bedrock faith in the robustness of the American Economy, its ability to make room for all. This position also acknowledged the real barriers presented by lack of resources and for some of the american more racial discrimination. But it nonetheless drew the conclusion that all that was needed to end poverty was to connect people who were poor with real opportunity. This. This commitment to opportunity helped sell the program. Most americans weve come across this problem in earlier phases and effective welfare reform has got to be acceptable to the majority of americans, meaning its going to have to find a way of sitting into generally accepted values. This commitment to opportunity helps sell the program. Most americans resisted the idea of handouts, socalled the poor, the viewed Citizens Rights as involving fulfillment of citizens response abilities. In this case, the responsibility to be independent, to provide for ones own subsistence, to assert that, it might be impossible for some to achieve independence, except in a few specific categories of age or disability. Was cast doubt on the American Dream itself the dream that in america all persons could attain selfsufficiency and independence. So those are the innovations. What were the challenges for this program. Okay. Number one, federal system frictions. And this this was vivid at the time and is kind of fun. Imagine how if you if you know anything about mayor daley in chicago, imagine mayor daley felt when he got the news that the federal government was money that in past years probably would have come to the City Government of chicago. I into mayor daley himself and instead sending it to a some Grassroots Organization on the south out of mayor daleys. Depriving city coffers of this money in order to fund this, in his view radical, scrappy group on the south side that was only going make trouble for him across the country. The eo a created friction within the federal system because it did just that it went around state and local governments and provided funding directly to grassroots created friction within the federal system because it did that. Went around state and local governments and provided funding directly to Grassroots Organizations. Worse, as the 1960s heated up in levels of violence in the cities increased. The Community Action programs were often sometimes rightly and often wrongly come associated with support for increased militancy and even at times in support of violence. Is this success or failure . The purpose of the oaa was to shake up the system. It did that. Perhaps it was so effective that it made it unsustainable. Is second challenge coming from a different direction was failure and expense. Okay, president johnson, we pastor policy. We passed her war on poverty. You declared unconditional war. We put money in this of working on this for 18 months away look around and we noticed theres still poverty everywhere. Not only is the property everywhere, but its getting more expensive to write checks to it. In this period the Johnson Administration is experiencing an enlargement of the rules. It is through Social Security amendments increasing benefits to f dcd recipients. Theres a rising price taken gosh, darn it, you did not compass what you said you would. The logical question is who think she will solve property in 18 months . The 1960s are a tense time. Perhaps it was not illegitimate for people who had support of the act to say to the administration, look it, youve got to give a concrete sign of progress or we cannot continue selling these to folks back home. What you are saying is the opening wedge that will undermine support for this approach in congress. The piece is the social movement demand. Social movement impacts. At the top, i said, one of the unique aspects of this phase of social policy development is the degree to which social movements were prominent, and i think its fair to say, influential in shaping poverty outcomes. Lets look at those. We will look in particular at the Civil Rights Movement, black Power Movement and the womens rights contributions. The Civil Rights Movement is evolving rapidly in this moment. What is useful for us to notice is the Civil Rights Movement start out most americans are, very much in advocacy of Opportunity Solutions to the problem of property poverty. Militancy, particularly the black power phase will take the movement all the way to demands for guaranteed income. It is tracing the trajectory that the larger policy landscape will go through. So, our contemporary picture the Civil Rights Movement, 1955 to 1965 deemphasizes the demands for economic integration. In its origins, the movement was a demand for African American access to american opportunity. The demand envisioned a restructuring of American Society and economy to enable the access. It was both more ambitious and more realistic goal than that of material equality obtained through Income Redistribution policies. You can start with the march on washington. It was a march for jobs. That is what the demand was. The key organizers of the march, philip randolph, the labor organizer. The storied labor organizer. They were pushing for full economic assimilation of the African American community by way of expansion, Economic Opportunity. At this time they were working to develop a freedom budget. That would capture the ideas for restructuring the American Economy. The freedom budget was first proposed by them in late 1965, and it was submitted to the Johnson Administration and to the public in 1966. The aim of the budget was to rework the federal government funding to create equity through economic participation. It envisioned a restructure to guarantee a job for everyone willing to work at a living wage which lifted all workers out of poverty. This is something of a starting position in african American Social movement that was putting pressure on policy deliberations in washington. Eight corollary in this moment was the student nonviolent coordinating committee. It was the youth branch of the Civil Rights Movement. It is within this branch of the Civil Rights Movement that the shift im talking about, away from the lobbying for opportunity toward the more militant claim for guaranteed income. It is easy to see within the changes. The picture here, this is julian ben. He was with the local. Founded it in 1960 and founded as integrated movement, integrated Youth Organization focused on tackling nationwide the problem of discrimination, and ty blach discrimination. By 1966, this movement, like the rest of america, is experiencing a transition. First of all, black leadership within sncc reach the conclusion that from here on out, the sncc effort had to be led and largely implemented African American people. It in effect asked white people in the movement to leave the organization. Its counsel to those people was, if you are, as we see you are, committed to this movement, the place you can be most health is working in White Communities that enforce racial discrimination. Go back to those communiquis and make change there. We need to run this ourselves. In this moment, new leadership is appointed at sncc. Carmichael, seen here with dr. King, carmichael was a deeply invested supporter of martin king, but as a young man, 15 years younger than king, was beginning to feel strongly that the kinds of nonviolent tactics king is going to support were adequate to new challenges. This was underscored by failures of kings initiatives. In 1966, the Chicago Freedom program, king and southern christian Leadership Conference went to to chicago determined to open segregated housing in chicago, and was squashed flat by mayor daley. King had no real understanding of what he was coming against and challenging the urban machine. He didnt understand the depth of antiblack feeling and chicagos ethnic neighborhoods. He was quoted as saying, people have to go to chicago to learn how to hate. In that environment, carmichael takes over at sncc. Also, in 1966, first puts forward the slogan black power. This was the march in mississippi in june 1966. King and carmichael are at that march. King is struggling to keep it peaceful to continue on in a nonviolent path and carmichael is increasingly saying we have been taxed beyond our limit. One evening he was thrown in jail for the 30th time. He comes out of jail that evening and he tries out on the crowd, the marchers the next day, what do we want . Black power. He is not sure and king is not sure how participants will respond, but the chant is echoed back. What do we want . Black power. Black power. This is carmichael on that trip. This is underscored and the anxiety of americans inside and outside the black community is increased by the series of long, hot summers whis playing along with this. The long hot summer put on display the ineased militancy in the black community and in American Society at la pricing and violence in the , 1964 throug68. It started with violence in new york city, directlyr to the 1964 convention that nominated johnson for his term. In the wake of hro like killing , Police Killing in new york city, and included august 1965 neighborhood which occurred days after, five days after the passage of the act of 1965 which left people despairing. People felt they had moved mountains to get the Voting Rights act passed in what was a payoff . Terrible distraction in los angeles. It continued through uprisings in newark and detroit in july 1967 to the violence and destruction in cities across the nation following kings assassination, april 1968. Some americans and legislators responded to this increasing militancy and rising violence by challenging the legitimacy of the movement. Others responded to Movement Demands with increased urgency. In either case, the phase of the black freedom struggle captured the attention of political leaders and policymakers who listened when the spokesmen begin to make the case for poor peoples or at least poor black peoples claim to a guaranteed income. I want to quickly look at how this rising recognition of race as an issue was beginning to reshape the policy discourse around poverty policy. Again, ive got particular speakers i went to present. The first one is oscar lewis. He was a new yorker. The son of a rabbi. He started out in history. He got bored and became an anthropologist. He made a significant set of statements with his work on latin american families, puerto rican families in this case, in the united states. His thesis was that poor people were trapped in, quote, a culture of poverty that was both an adaptation and reaction to their marginal position in a class stratified, highly individualistic capitalist society. Its a culture of poverty. Lewis wrote a series of books in which he attempted to trace the impacts of this culture of poverty on American People living in poverty. You can see where this is headed. It retained the idea that poverty may be systemic, but it is now perhaps putting the problem beyond the reach of policy interventions. It is saying, its not a problem with opportunity structures, but a deeper issue and goes to the enculturation of people. In a similar vein and even more controversial he was the moynihan report. Daniel moynahan, in these years, assistant secretary and the department of labor. He prepared a report, internal report on the family. It became public in october 1965 and it raised a furor. The report was challenged to challenge the conventional wisdom that Economic Conditions are the prime elements shaping the lives of the poor and argued instead, parallel to lewis, that the conditions in black were an important part of function of failed Family Structure, specifically the fatherless matriarchal family the causes of which the Family Structure traced back to slavery, jim crow, and ongoing race discrimination. As moynihan interpreted the data, it showed, quote, the gap between the negro and most of the groups in American Society is widening as evidence for example in the out of wedlock birth rate which in 1965 is 25 in the African American community and 3. 1 among white families. From this and other data, moynihan concluded that the conditions in African American communities not so much in Economic Conditions as in family life which black communities constituted theres the famous and famously controversial statement, constituted, quote, a tangle of pathology capable of perpetuating itself without systems from the white world. At the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of Negro Society is the deterioration of the negro family. The fundamental source of the weakness of the negro community. Every stinko outcry. Critics accused him of blaming the victim. This report influenced war on poverty planning. The report cast doubt on the efficacy of existing welfare programs. Moynihan found it increases in welfare spending tract with increases in African American community disintegration. He argued to johnson that without access to jobs then means to contribute meaningful support to a family, black men would be systematically alienated from the roles as husbands and fathers. The report raise doubts as to whether, given the embeddedness that it was asserted, efforts to create new access to opportunity would be sufficient. Its recognizing we have a systemic problem. It is sticking with letters of opportunity but beginning to say we may be dealing with something bigger here than we had envisioned and we may not have the tools we need to deal with them. Lets look at the womens end of this. This was womens rights, the activism among women that would ultimately, that we know as feminism is rising at this time. It became another stream of activism feeding into the debate on poverty policy. Women were the stepchildren of the Great Society family. Legislators on the house floor gladly stepped up to vote in favor of provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, but they guffawed out loud when they were asked to do the same for discrimination on the basis of sex. It did pass and inserted by this guy. Representative judge smith of virginia. He was a famous segregationist. Its unclear if he wants to inserted the class about discrimination on the basis of sex because as a poison pill hoping he would take the bill. Or if he included it because he was and had a record as a supporter of womens rights. In any case, the prohibition did pass. Only by a hair. This treatment of women, womens concerns continued. The equal Employment Opportunity commission created by the 1964 act. It simply declined in the early years to pursue claims of discrimination based on sex. Would not pursue them. The theory was these were less important than those based on race. The dereliction of duty led directly to the formation of the National Organization for women which during the late 1960s was prominent in seeing to it that womens claims would be included in the public and policy conversations. That background, large Womens Movement is in the offing. We are interested in the welfare Rights Movement which also evolved at this time. Poverty policy battles often centered on women weather as the problematic matriarchs of the moynihan report as the recipients of af dcade. They were rising rapidly during these years. The National WelfareRights Organization was formed in 1967, drawing together multiple grassroots groups that proliferated in the cities around the nation to demand improvements to the american poor relief system. Was johnny tillman. The system tillman was anvist and organizer and welfare mother. As she described hersel i am a woman. I am a black woman. Ama poor woman. I am a fat woman. Im a middleaged woman and i am on welfare. In this y, if you are anyone of ththings, poor, black, female, middleage, on welfare you count this as a human being. If you are all those things, you do not count at all except as a statistic. I am a statistic. I am 45 years old. I have raised six children. She described the dilemma women like her faced. , quote, nobody denies, most of all poor women, that theres dignity and satisfaction in supporting your kids their honest labor. We wish we could do it. The problem is that economic policies deny the dignity a satisfaction of self sufficiency to millions of people. The millions who suffer every day and underpaid, dirty jobs, still dont have enough to survive. She had a solution to propose. It was this. If i were president , i would solve this socalled welfare crisis in a minute and go a long way toward berating every woman. I would issue a proclamation that womens work is real work. In other words, id start paying women a living wage for doing the work we are already doing. And child raising and housekeeping and the welfare crisis would be over just like that. Recognizing the radicalism of the proposal in effect the overthrow of patriarchy, she had a more practical proposal to offer. We, the National WelfareRights Organization, but together our own welfare plan called guaranteed adequate income. It would eliminate sexism from welfare. There would be no categories. Men, women, children, single, married. Just for people who need aid. You get paid according to need and family size only. Is 6500 payment for family of four which is the department of labors estimate of what is adequate. Here is this voice, this strong set of voices now coming out of the black community, womens community, whether its Community Sing to policymakers, we cant wait on your heres what we want you to do. They had backup. This they came forward to make this happen. Just as tillmon and they were coming forward with the guaranteed income proposal, columbia university, developing an Action Strategy differs the implementation on the federal government. They presented the strategy and an essay in a 1966 issue of the nation. It was called the weight of the poor, strategy to end poverty. How can we use the way to the port to leverage policy change . The aim of the strategy was, quote, to wipe out poverty by establishing a guaranteed annual income. How . At that time, they observed, many people eligible to receive afdc benefits were not registered. The clowardpiven plan was to organize to push registration toward 100 of those eligible. Doing so, it would produce bureaucratic disruption and welfare agencies and fiscal disruption in local and state governments. A National Democratic administration would be constrained to advance a federal solution to poverty that would override liberal welfare failures, local class and race conflicts, and local revenue dilemmas. They recognize that such an aim would be, quote, questioned by some because the ideal of individual social and economic mobility has such deep roots that even activists seem reluctant to call for National Programs to eliminate poverty by the outright redistribution of income. There we have a framework created by the administration, early in 60s moment that looks recreation of opportunity, restructuring the economy. As the decade rolls forward, we have the emergence of these evermore effective and evermore militant social movements, just like legislators on the hill, had become impatient with what the administration is asking people to do, and pushing for a radical solution in the form of guaranteed income. We do move toward entitlement thinking. This ultimately undermines the program. In fact, a series of factors come together to undermine the program. The continuation of the johnson plan required continuing support from congress for expenses that necessarily were going to get larger going forward. Its one thing to pilot a program like the Community Action program, but as planning continued, each of the action plans will be calling on greater federal resources. It was essential to keep the Democratic Coalition together around support for this act. This began to fall apart. Number 1, as mentioned earlier, there was the problem of the weakness of initial results. Welfare costs are not going down but getting higher. We dont see abatement to poverty in american cities. We see increased militants, increased disruption and chaos. It does not seem to be working. How do we sell this to folks back home . A second consideration was the fact of vietnam. It was problematic in more ways than one. There was budget pressure due to the war. It became clear by 1966 that although johnson had come out swinging, swearing that in his view, the American Economy was robust enough that it could provide for both guns and butter into it simultaneously. 1966, its clear thats not the case. Its clear to prevent risk of significant inflation, what johnson ought to be doing is imposing a new set of taxes. Just had this big success, passing the 1964 revenue act. He does not want to go back on it, and is not sure he has the support in congress to do that. It means he has to chiseled down support for grade 680 program. The effect of that is to the legislators who had supported him, particularly those to the left and had committed to the Great Society vision feeling betrayed. We have this program and you are cutting us off at the knees. How do i talk to the people in my community about this . Result was those legislators were looking for a different approach. Social Movement Advocacy played a part. Here, said black power militants and welfare rights militants. Here is another possibility. How about this . The one you are using is not working. Violence in the later 60s is reaching what contemporaries perceived as a crisis point. Legislators are anxious to take steps that will quiet the situation. Maybe guaranteed income is not such a terrible idea. Maybe, in fact, guaranteed income given the complexity of the problem that we are recognizing, maybe its the only thing we can do. This is exacerbated by pushback, particularly among the working class. Working class people in particular expressed hostility to the idea of what they perceived to be handouts to people who were not pulling their own weight. This creative political problems for people in congress. How do we balance this . The deciding factor is the role of race. This is because the claims of entitlement were particularly telling in the case of the black freedom struggle. Is demands of leadership groomer strident, legislators found it harder to pursue a program of opportunity which conditioned participation on demands that the participants will fill work and family responsibilities. If you have a claim that we deem valid against society, if you say i suffered because of discrimination, then can we make is a predicate of beating you a set of work requirements . Or are we obligated to write you a check . Policymakers turned to evaluation of the claims of entitlement to a guaranteed income. This included even lyndon johnson. In his 1965 Howard University commencement address, johnson himself recognize the weight of African American claims recognizing the tremendous progress made during his administration toward debate of segregation and national freedom, jensen recognize, quote, freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying you are free to go where you want. Do wish you desire and choose the leaders you please. You do not take a person who has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bringing to the starting line and say you are free to compete with the others. Still, justly belief you have been completely fair. Thus, johnson told Howard University graduates the struggle would enter a new phase in which the nation must seek, quote, not just legal equity but human ability. Not just the quality is a writing theory but equality is a fact and equality as a result. We are moving away from opportunity toward entitlement. Toward outcome. Lets take a glimpse ahead and ask what this moment of policy experience under the Johnson Administration meant for policy going forward. This idea of guaranteed income was going to have its real moment in the sun under the presidency of richard nixon. Nixon in 1969 submitted to congress the family assistance plan. The plan had been designed by patrick moynihan, seen here. It would have provided a living wage allamerican families and it wouldve done it wouldve replaced afdc and by replacing afdc it wouldve done away with singling out welfare mothers and others of the unworthy poor. The family assistance plan was defeated in 1972 by a democratic congress. It is something that kennedy among others ever after. The idea of a guaranteed income did fail, and we will have more to say about that next week. The subsequent major policy developments, 1980s and the cuts during the Reagan Administration to a range of social provision policies followed in 1969 by the act that created the temporary assistance for needy families. Its under president clinton who promised to end well for as we know it. Both of these under reagan and clinton attack moved further away from the idea of the possibility of a legitimate guaranteed income. At the end of the 20th century, holding in johnson, nixon, reagan, clinton, there were a number of paths of possible reform. As we have been seeing throughout our work in this material, all these remain live options. The question is, what is the balance among them . What are the new arguments to get better support to some beyond others . By the end of the 20th century, americans considered was several paths toward poor relief and improved quality of life for all americans. Work relief, the idea that in a society that so valued work i will find it. A society that valued work, job should be available to all willing to work. And the last resort, that job should be provided by the national government. Is we have seen, roosevelts new deal program for Social Security lot with a plan for public works and full employment. It was picked up by his successor, harry truman, who made an effort to pass a full employment bill. Roosevelts initiative was diverted by the war effort and trumans bill which wouldve committed the federal government to providing work told americans was passed only in a watered down version in 1946. We have toyed with the idea of government to provide work in a society dedicated to work, as the employer of last resort. We have toyed with that and have not followed through. The second possibility is the johnson possibility of opportunity restructuring. This is an effort its a commitment to the American Economy, faith in the robustness incapability of the American Economy and commitment to retooling it so it works for all. Its a tremendously hopeful approach to poverty policy. A third possibility, one not adequately explored even during the new deal, its the idea of attacking poverty by providing a strong baseline of public services. Housing is affordable and healthful. If Public Schools are good, if there are access to things like libraries and job training and health care, this changes the needs of each private household. Why not approach this that way . We also nibble on that approach. The problem with that is that it begins to sound like socialism which is a problem for americans. Finally, in this list, the idea of income guarantees. The plus of this approach is it recognizes the justice of the claims of all members of a society to share to some reasonable degree in its resources and benefits. By forestalling efforts to improve underlying economic and social systems to assist independent access to opportunity by citizens, this approach risks a degree of social stagnation and the creation of a permanent underclass of citizens, able bodied but pensioned off. What this means, all of these are policy approaches, active, on the table. Policymakers will shuffle among them, arguing with one another about them as the public will. My bottom line is we as americans are permanently stuck in the struggle. Struggle for policy that can harmonize our self identity as a people committed both to work, selfsufficiency, and independence, and also to a political equality among citizens. That is all i have to say at the present time. If you enjoy American History tv, sign up for newsletter with a qr code on the screen. You can receive schedules of the programming. Sign up for the American History tv newsletter today and watch American History tv every saturday or anytime online at cspan. Org history. Heres a look at significant moments in history during the month of october. October 28, 1929 is remembered as black monday in the Dow Jones Industrial average continued falling in a stock market crash that eventually led to billions of dollars lost. And the great depression. Vertex in the nernberg trials of leading officials were handed down on october 1, 1946. The trials culminated in 19 of the defendants being convicted of charges including crimes against humanity. 12 were sentenced to death and three others were acquitted. On october 16, 1962, the cuba missile crisis began when the u. S. Discovered Nuclear Missile sites under construction in cuba. 13 days, president kennedy and his administration navigated the competition with soviet premier khrushchev and the soviet military. After negotiation, diplomatic resolution was reached and the soviets agreed to dismantle the arsenal in cuba. The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are. It is the one most consistent with our character and courage as a nation and our commitments around the world. The cost of freedom is always high, but americans have always paid it. One path we shall never choose and thats the path of surrender or submission. Our goal is not the victory of might but the vindication of right. Not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom. Here in this hemisphere, and we hope around the world, god willing that goal will be achieved. Thank you and good night. That is a look at some significant moments in october. American history tv has programs available to watch online on all these topics in the archives at cspan. Org history. Weekends on cspan 2. Every saturday, American History tv documents americas store and on sundays, but tv brings the latest in nonfiction books and authors. Funding for cspan capitol to comes from these companies and more including midco. Good af. My name ma