Explain the Great Society programs and the social movements of the 1960s, including the War on Poverty, Medicare and Medicaid, and the women's, environmental, and other rights movements (Tennessee Academic Standards for Social Studies, United States History and Geography, US.46).

What this topic is asking

Standard US.46 asks how the federal government tried to fight poverty and expand rights in the 1960s, and how new social movements spread. For the EOC that means understanding President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty, the creation of Medicare and Medicaid, the further expansion of the federal role, and the women's, environmental, and other rights movements that the era inspired.

The Great Society and the War on Poverty

After President Kennedy's assassination (1963), Vice President Lyndon Johnson became president and won a landslide in 1964. He used that mandate to launch the Great Society.

Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs

The Great Society's most enduring achievements were in health, education, and welfare:

• Medicare (1965): health insurance for the elderly (people 65 and older).
• Medicaid (1965): health coverage for low-income Americans.
• Federal aid to education, including funding for poor school districts and college students.
• Head Start, an early-childhood education program for poor children.
• Programs for housing, food (food stamps), jobs, and the arts.
• The major civil rights laws (the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965) are also part of the Great Society's legacy.

The expanding role of government

The Great Society continued a long trend, beginning with the Progressive Era and accelerated by the New Deal, of an expanding federal role in the economy and in citizens' lives. It cemented programs like Medicare and Medicaid that remain central to American government, while critics argued it cost too much and made people dependent, a debate that fueled the conservative reaction of later decades (see the conservative turn).

The social movements of the 1960s

The energy and example of the civil rights movement inspired other groups to organize:

• The women's rights (feminist) movement: demanded equal opportunity and pay, founded the National Organization for Women (NOW), and pushed for the Equal Rights Amendment (which fell short of ratification).
• The environmental movement: spurred by Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring, leading to the first Earth Day (1970) and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
• The Mexican American (Chicano) movement: led by figures like Cesar Chavez, who organized farmworkers.
• The American Indian Movement (AIM): pressed for treaty rights and self-determination.
• A broad youth counterculture challenged traditional values, often linked to opposition to the Vietnam War.

Why this matters for the EOC

This topic supplies matching items (Medicare/Medicaid, Great Society programs), cause-and-effect items (the expanding role of government), and items identifying the 1960s movements. The big idea ties the Great Society to the New Deal (the growth of government) and the social movements to the civil rights model of organized protest.

Try this

Q1. State the main goal of the Great Society and name two of its programs. [3]

• Cue. Goal: to end poverty and racial injustice and improve quality of life. Programs: any two of Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, federal aid to education, food and housing programs.

Q2. Name two social movements of the 1960s besides the civil rights movement. [2]

• Cue. Any two of: the women's (feminist) movement, the environmental movement, the Chicano movement, the American Indian Movement, the counterculture.