Great Society: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The Great Society was a series of domestic initiatives announced in 1964 by President Lyndon Johnson at Ann Arbor, Michigan. A main focus of these social reforms to "end to poverty and racial injustice" was the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The efforts also helped establish the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Other programs included:

• VISTA
• Job Corps
• Upward Bound
• Neighborhood Youth Corps
• Head Start
• an unconditional war on poverty

The Great Society was never fully funded because of the Vietnam War, which drained available resources. It was partially overturned by President Ronald Reagan's first budget.