The “War on Poverty,” and the impact of public policy In his first State of the Union address in January 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson told Congress that “many Americans live on the outskirts of hope—some because of their poverty, and some because of their color, and all too many because of both.” Johnson declared “unconditional war on poverty in America” and challenged Congress to act on income, jobs, health, education, and housing. Johnson’s call was propelled by the civil rights movement and its dual struggle for equal political rights and tangible economic justice for all. After all, the name of 1963’s March on Washington was “The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,” which included in its demands “a massive federal program” for all unemployed workers—black and white—and a minimum wage that “will give all Americans a decent standard of living.” In 1967-8 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. prophetically urged America, as his friend, the late Vincent Harding...
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