The national poverty rate rose to about nineteen percent in the 1960s. President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a war against this epidemic, continuing the goals of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.
On this day, January 8th, in 1964, President Johnson announced several initiatives for fighting the War on Poverty in his State of the Union Address. The initiatives included increasing mandatory overtime pay rates and other changes.
Inspired by President Johnson’s speech, the United States Congress passed the Economic Opportunity Act. As a result, the Office of Economic Opportunity was created to help funnel federal funds to local purposes for decreasing the poverty rate. The War on Poverty campaign lost much support over time, but its ideals are still apparent today in federal programs like Head Start and Job Corps to name a few.