It’s the summer of 1964 and Lyndon Johnson has just signed the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. It was a continuation of the proposal of John F. Kennedy and LBJ found a way to make it happen, but when it came to the safety net Johnson’s vision encompassed far greater legislation.

From healthcare to education, unemployment to the media, the arts, and beyond; and much of that work, as we touched on in the last episode, he began under FDR.

By this time LBJ had been a part of the US government for over 25 years with one goal, to become president of the United States. So 1964 after he’s become president following the assassination of John Kennedy, he now had to run for office on his own, and everything he’d worked for was on the line.

President Johnson needed to make his mark and form a foundation that was truly his. Although, as we’ll explore in later episodes, he is remembered for another war, it was the War on Poverty that he was willing to wager his presidency on.

One of the most unique pieces of the war on poverty was Community Action. Community Action Programs or CAPS turned out to be one of the most controversial parts of the war on poverty and simultaneously one of the most revolutionary. The programs were controlled at the local level and the power was in the hands of the people who needed the resources.

In this episode, we will pull apart the fine details of the Economic Opportunity Act, and hear some conversations that illustrate the tension and the steaks of creating some of the most revolutionary safety net programs of the 20th century. We’ll talk about why the war on poverty and programs like Community Action, Job Corps, and Head Start were so important to LBJ as a person and as president, we’ll talk about the compromises it took to create and pass this legislation, and we’ll explore the impact of programs like the Job Corps had on people like heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman.

Special thanks to our guests for this episode, Erine Gray, Guian McKee, Andrew R. Smith, Melody Barnes, and Robert Caro. And thank you as well to The Miller Center at the University of Virginia, The American Presidency Project at The University of California Santa Barbara, and The LBJ Presidential Library and Museum in Austin Texas for their consultation and use of archived materials.

Michael Zapruder arranged and composed the music for this show, and played guitar, with Jeff Olsen on drums, Mike St. Clair on bass, and Sam Lipman on keyboards.

Executive Producer, Rebecca McInroy.

Advising Editor, Jim Tuttle

Intern, Frances Cutter