USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -In 1964 the War on Poverty began with the passage of President Lyndon Johnson’s Economic Opportunity Act. This was the start of many anti-poverty programs that provided access to health care, nutritional assistance and educational support that continue today.

Detailed explanation-2: -Encompassing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 was created “to eliminate the paradox of poverty on the midst of plenty in this nation by opening…. To everyone… the opportunity for education and training, the opportunity to work, and the opportunity to live in decency and dignity."

Detailed explanation-3: -Major initiatives The Office of Economic Opportunity was the agency responsible for administering most of the war on poverty programs created during Johnson’s Administration, including VISTA, Job Corps, Head Start, Legal Services and the Community Action Program.

Detailed explanation-4: -In his first State of the Union address in January 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Congress to declare an “unconditional war on poverty” and to aim “not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it” (1965).