Page 8 - History of Community Action - Module 1.final1_1_Neat
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“This administration today, here and now, declares
                                         unconditional war on poverty in America.”

                                                        - Excerpted from Lyndon B. Johnson State of the Union
                                                                                                        Address, January 1964




           War on                            • President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the War on Poverty



          Poverty                                in his State of the Union Address on January 8, 1964. At that

                                                 time 35 million Americans (nearly 30%) lived in poverty, and
                                                 about 25% of black youths could expect to live life without

                                                 regular employment.


                                             • He expressed ‘the challenge of the next half century is
                                                 whether we have the wisdom to use that wealth to enrich

                                                 and elevate our national life, and to advance the quality of

                                                 our American civilization.”

                                             • As a result, he proposed his vision of a Great Society in a

                                                 major piece of legislation, the Economic Opportunity Act of

                                                 1964.
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