Johnson's Great Society and the limits of civil rights progress in the 1960s

America During the 1960's

The 1960's began well for America. President Kennedy appeared to have the social and economic aspects of the country under good control. After his assassination,

President Lyndon Baines Johnson took over and attempted to continue Kennedy's ideals. Policies such as the war on poverty as well as other implementations such as civil rights for all were to form part of Johnson's "Great Society." This appeared to improve things after the tragic death Kennedy. However, horrors such as the Vietnam War and the subsequent economic crisis brought about a decline in the short-lived prosperity. Other elements such as violence resulting from resistance to new civil rights laws also contributed to decline where better administration may have resulted in progress. Below these elements are considered to arrive at a conclusion about the degree of progress and decline in America during this time.

The Great Society

Johnson's presidency began well enough. The two major elements of the Great Society he wanted to establish were the Civil Rights Act and the war on poverty. This was seen to especially benefit those who were marginalized by average society, such as the African-Americans, people of other ethnic origins, as well as women. The writer Ralph Ellison in fact hailed this president as practically the best thing that could come on the path of the African-American (Schultz). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 contained elements that benefited women and minorities in terms of discrimination both in society and in the workplace. Equal opportunities were therefore guaranteed, and the civil rights movement was on its way. This seems to not quite have been enough however. Whereas integration as such was the initial focus of the Civil Rights Act, minorities still had few political rights. This is what particularly brought about the African-American struggle for freedom by means of political empowerment during the middle of the 1960's (Schultz).

Voting rights were for example a serious issue due to the extreme violence related to this. Selma, Alabama for example featured 15,000 eligible black voters, of which 335 was able to register for voting (Schultz). It is interesting that protestors for the right to vote were nonviolent until provoked by state troopers. This shows the inequality that was still very much part of African-American life despite rosy presidential promises to the contrary. It is also interesting that a traditional means of restricting black voters were literacy tests. Literacy was also more easily accessible to white people, whose children were allowed to go to quality schools, whereas the poor and minorities were not. Socially, all these elements are indicative of the deeply instilled belief that minorities were somehow not worthy and not as clever as those with the correct skin color. The president however attempted to bridge this gap by passing the Voting Rights Act in 1965 (Schultz).

The civil rights movement thus received another push forward. It appeared that the Great Society was truly becoming part of every American life. Everybody did not however agree about this. Religion played an important part in African-American spiritual life and thus also in political empowerment. Reverend Martin Luther King for example relied on the Christian tradition to motivate a nonviolent resistance (Schultz). Malcolm X however disagreed with him, depending on Islam to take a more active role in solving the problems experienced by African-Americans in United States society (Shultz). Malcolm X gained much ground in terms of both followers and fellow leaders. In fact the years from 1964-1968 saw increasing support for self-defense rather than the non-violent resistance preached by King. This resulted in a tear within the civil rights movement between those still holding on to the Christian ideal while others wanted to stand up and fight for what was theirs by law. Gradually however the ideal of "Black Power" came to take over from Christian ideals in the civil rights movement (Schultz).

The War on Poverty

Poverty was then, as it is now, an extremely pressing problem in American Society. In fact, later during the decade it was found that poverty and violence were directly related (Schultz). The War on Poverty was another way in which Johnson attempted to alleviate the country's problems, and to bring about the Great Society. This was done by various means. The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 for example included a variety of actions to initiate this war: They included work-study programs for university students; basic education and job training, which was of course meant to deal with the literacy problem among African-Americans; and community action programs, by which the poor were to decide what strategies would be most helpful to their situation. This legislation was however always under funded and never truly had enough money to wage the war as envisioned by the president.

The Vietnam War

The Vietnam war brought about an entirely new rift in American society. There were those who supported the war, and others against it. The entire culture of America seems to have been caught up in the war, and it was the start of the most prominent peace movement the world has ever seen. Ground troupes were being sent to Vietnam in 1965. This resulted in a new ideal, manifesting in a counterculture against what was termed as "The Establishment" ("Make Love, Not War"). Materialism was rejected in favor of new cultural elements such as love, peace, drugs, music and sex. The new promiscuity resulted in part from the development of new and safer birth control methods such as the Pill. Marches and draft-card burnings formed part of the protest against a war that escalated to huge proportions: 500,000 U.S. soldiers found themselves in Vietnam by 1967. Furthermore not only young people, but also the rest of society became discontented with the war. These included businessmen who had concerns over the economic implications of the war (Garraty & McCaughy 902). Prominent members of society such as Senator J. William Fulbright referred to the war as "unnecessary and immoral." He also condemned America's part in the war as a "false and dangerous dream of imperial destiny" (Garraty & McCaughy 900). It seemed that Johnson was unable or unwilling to do anything about the war, and this made people even more rebellious. The war was thus raging while Johnson withdrew from the presidential election, and Richard Nixon took over.

Conclusion

While Nixon did more to withdraw troops from Vietnam than Johnson did, it does not appear that there is any significant improvement from the 1960's. The greatest problem brought on by the war was inflation. Nixon had not ambitious schemes to deal with this or indeed very much else. Initially his lack of political energy or ambition appeared perhaps welcome after the disaster of the war brought about by Johnson, but his indecisive uncertainty did little to alleviate economics or any other social problems. It may therefore be said that while the 1960's began idealistically, the war on poverty and the Great Society had thoroughly failed by 1970. It was a grim start to a new decade.