Citizen Al

ourpresidents:

“The Great Society asks not how much, but how good; not only how to create wealth but how to use it; not only how fast we are going, but where we are headed.”

-Lyndon B. Johnson.  January 4, 1965.

On this date in 1965, President Johnson delivered his second annual State of the Union address to Congress.  LBJ described his goals for the nation as a “Great Society.” 

The Great Society program laid out a domestic agenda for Congress that would come to include: aid to education, protection of civil rights (including the right to vote), reduction of poverty, urban renewal, Medicare, conservation, beautification, promotion of the arts, and consumer protection.  

State of the Union Address: Toward the Great Society

In this picture, LBJ gives the 1964 State of the Union address in the Capitol Building, Washington D.C. ID 3-6-WH6.

What if we let well enough alone? Left poverty, discrimination and suffering be the inevitable fate of the poor?

We didn’t leave it alone. And we are better for it. As a society, we tried to address big problems. Not always perfectly, but social good was done.