Great Society and Social Movements Notes

Great Society and Its Discontents

The Great Society initiatives aimed to address poverty and racial injustice. A photo shows a sign offering free breakfast for children, sponsored by the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, highlighting community-based efforts to combat poverty.

The Great Society led to revolutionary transformations by undermining Jim Crow laws, resulting in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. These acts enforced constitutional rights related to voting and prohibited discrimination.
Civil Rights Act of 1964:
- Addressed discrimination in public accommodations.
- Authorized the Attorney General to file suits for protecting constitutional rights.
- Extended the Commission on Civil Rights.
- Established the Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity.
Voting Rights Act of 1965:
- Enforced the Fifteenth Amendment.
- Prohibited voting qualifications or procedures that deny or abridge the right to vote based on race or color.

Images show support for the Black Panther Party and movements for Black Power, indicating a push for Black freedom and community empowerment.

Economic Opportunity Act: Created community-based anti-poverty programs.
Medicare and Medicaid: Provided healthcare benefits to the elderly and low-income individuals.
Elementary and Secondary Education Act: Aimed to improve education in schools.
Appalachian Regional Development Act: Focused on economic development in the Appalachian region.
Neighborhood Youth Corps, VISTA, Model Cities Program, Community Action Program, HEAD START: Various programs addressing youth employment, community development, and early childhood education.
Social Security and AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) benefits were expanded.

Many racial minorities and poor whites were denied access to basic entitlement programs, suburban housing markets, and better-paying jobs.
Public housing programs were underfunded, poorly constructed, and segregated. Only about 10% of the necessary units were built.
1949 Housing Act and Urban Renewal:
- Funded the destruction of run-down urban neighborhoods.
- Federal government subsidized demolition, enabling private developers to build.
- Demolitions were intended for rejuvenating blighted areas but resulted in the destruction of approximately 150,000 residential units, largely affecting working-class and low-income minority communities.
- These units were replaced with commercial and high-rent residential developments or freeways.

Construction of the Cross-Bronx Expressway (1948-1972) displaced 60,000 residents.

Examples from Washington, D.C., illustrate how urban renewal and freeway construction led to displacement and segregation.
Southeast D.C. (1950s-1970s): 23,000 people were displaced to construct federal buildings and parking facilities.

Black protest challenged conventional ideas about American citizenship.
Figures such as David Walker, Martin Delaney, Ida B. Wells, Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. DuBois, and A. Phillip Randolph advocated for civil rights and equality.

Martin Luther King Jr. noted the intense hostility and hate in Chicago demonstrations, even compared to those in Mississippi and Alabama.

Ture and Hamilton, Black Power (1967): Argued that pervasive institutional racism created socially undesirable conditions and that there were no legitimate programs to address the alienation and oppressive conditions in ghettos.
King, “The Days to Come” (1964): Asserted that gradualism is immoral and ineffective, calling for a radical readjustment of attitudes toward African Americans and compensatory consideration for historical handicaps. He emphasized that the struggle for rights is fundamentally a struggle for opportunities.