How President Johnson Gave The Oppressed A Voice

  By Mr.Clap December 6, 2013  

 

President Lyndon Johnson took over after John F Kennedy was assassinated. Kennedy previously created the Camelot society idea but Johnson envisioned something different for America. Johnson’s vision was coined as the “Great Society”. The Great Society purpose was to make society better by helping out the people who had the smallest voices and Johnson used many of the same types of groundbreaking legislation that was used back in FDR’s New Deal.
One of the main groups of people who had the smallest voices during Johnson’s presidency were Blacks. The 1964 civil rights act,1965 voters rights act and 1968 civil rights act gave Blacks a metaphorical megaphone. The 1964 civil rights act was intended to remove discrimination from all public places.The 1965 Voters rights act, actually gave the the 15th amendment some real meaning and helped give Blacks more of a voice through the ballot box. Before the 1965 VRA, Blacks were discriminated against at polling places , even though the 15th amendment was in place. The bill was so controversial President Johnson had to send in marshals to enforce the policy at polling places.
President Johnson’s great society set out to also eliminate poverty. It was important to him that the weak were given a voice . He created the head start program to educate children in hope of when they went to grade school, they would excel and eventually get out of poverty by getting a better job. Also, Johnson initiated the food stamps program, his Great Society resembled FDR’s new deal of the great depression. Johnson also made a great impact that we still feel today;medicaid and medicare .Medicare, is a federal policy to provide health assistance to the elderly and is a part of the New Deal. Medicare provides coverage for hospitalization,coverage for prescription drugs, and other insurance coverage. Medicaid was created for low-income Americans to assist with the cost of medical care. This medicaid program imitated much of the policies from medicare except for the poor.
Johnson methods could have been more effective if it wasn’t for the Vietnam War. The war sucked away many funds that could have been beneficial to Johnson’s great society. We will never truly know what the Great Society could have been. Also, Johnson’s support of the war caused another member of  his party to run against him. Johnson eventually dropped out of the race even though he was the incumbent, one can speculate that without the war he would have ran again and his society would have solved all problems but, then again that is just speculation.
President Johnson gave the voice to the people who could not speak. His great society philosophy was a vision for america that shaped the way we live today. The great society , was an envision set forth by President Johnson and its purpose was to make society better by helping out the people who had the smallest voices.