Introduction
Major social changes that John F. Kennedy wanted to establish during his presidency were united under a program that he believed could change the state – the ‘New American Frontier’ (Shi, 2019). Kennedy’s efforts to pursue civil rights and other social programs at home included providing federal protection of the right to vote, ending segregation in education, and enabling equal access to public facilities (Shi, 2019).
Discussion
Thus, the problems that he wanted to address concerning education, poverty, urbanization, and healthcare, for which he suggested improvements in the form of 355 legislative requests within his first year (Shi, 2019). He, similar to his predecessors Roosevelt and Eisenhower, promoted racial equality. He was effective since civil rights development was most successful in the sixties (Shi, 2019). Kennedy, his brother, and his advisor took actions that made progress in supporting civil rights movements but did not execute enough legislation, which was the weakness of the frontier.
Lyndon B. Johnson was the president who declared war against poverty in the country and succeeded in it. One of the first moves he made was decreasing unemployment by increasing economic activity, which was the result of a tax reduction of 20% under The Revenue Act of 1964 (Shi, 2019). Later, he convinced Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act, which represented extremely democratic ideas of equality, liberty, and opportunities for all. The move by Johnson, which created the greatest power in minimizing poverty, was the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 (Shi, 2019). Under the legislation, the Office for Economic Opportunity was created (OEO) (Shi, 2019). The act included a wide range of programs ranging from educational training and financial aid to volunteer programs and the Food Stamp Act (Shi, 2019).
Conclusion
Consequently, after executing numerous activities and legislations to help the underserved groups of society mainly the poor, Johnson was remembered as an ‘anti-poverty’ politician.
Reference
Shi, D. E. (2019). America: A narrative history. W.W. Norton & Company.