Great Society Vs New Deal Essay

During the twentieth century two of the largest and most important domestic programs came through FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society. Even though it is plausible to argue that the Great Society is somewhat based off of the New Deal, it is false to think that the Great Society and the New Deal shared the same goals. For the most part, the Great Society did not resemble the New Deal in its goals and policies because both sets of domestic programs had different agendas and purposes. A major difference between the Great Society and the New Deal programs is their goals for African Americans. The New Deal struggled with providing jobs for the largely unemployed black population in the South during the Great Depression and the years that followed (Brinkley 657). Moreover, even in the few domestic programs that were catered to blacks, such as the WPA, blacks and whites were segregated because the South had an extraordinarily less amount of black WPA workers than the North (697). Additionally, even though the CCC camps which were created for blacks and whites were quickly integrated with both races in the North during its immediate foundation, by 1935 almost all CCC camps in the nation were segregated and blacks held lower roles and positions in the camp compared to the white workers (696). Therefore, even though the New Deal did provide temporary federal monetary relief for a large amount of the black population, it did not look to challenge or remove existing patterns of discrimination (696). On the other hand, the Great Society was successful in legally fobing job discrimination and segregation in public accommodations, as well as putting many of the demands of the Civil Rights Movement into legislation (826). For example, Johnson used public and private pressure to end the filibuster by southern senators in order to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (827). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was followed …show more content…
The New Deal mainly focused on eliminating unemployment and poverty by creating thousands of short-term jobs. For example, the CWA created over four million temporary jobs for people from November 1933 to April 1934 (686). Also, FDR used federal relief to temporarily help the impoverished while the economy was still reviving (685). For instance, the creation of the FERA provided federal grants to states who would use the money to kick start bankrupt relief agencies (685). On the contrary, LBJ declared a “War on Poverty” through his Great Society programs, and the Great Society’s programs were created in the hope of eliminating the plaguing unemployment and poverty in the country especially in the more isolated rural regions. For example, between ten years from 1959 to 1969 the percentage of Americans living below the poverty line decreased from 21 percent to 12 percent (825). This progress in reducing poverty in the U.S can be credited mostly to economic growth but also slightly to the Great Society programs, and either way the goals of the Great Society were met in significantly lowering unemployment for a long period of time (825). Finally, the creation of the Medicaid and Medicare programs as a part of the Great Society programs offered many eligible poor people to receive affordable health care that would have previously driven them into poverty (Patterson