Great Society

The Great Society was a set of programs proposed or enacted in the United States by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Two main goals of the Great Society were to end poverty and to end racial discrimination. New major spending programs that dealt with education, medical care, urban problems, and transportation were started during this period. The Great Society was like the New Deal domestic plan of Franklin D. Roosevelt, but had very different programs.

Medicaid and Medicare were implemented to help poor Americans. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society was the largest expansion of spending programs since the Great Depression. Many of the programs that exist can be attributed to the passage of the Great Society.

Great Society Media

• President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2, 1964

• President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

• The August 1964 signing of the Poverty Bill

• President Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965.

• Pens used to sign civil rights legislation by LBJ. LBJ Library, Austin, Texas.jpg

  The pens used by President Lyndon B. Johnson to sign Great Society legislation