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Black and white candid of several generations of tenant farmer William David Marlow's family, sitting on a porch with President Johnson.
President Lyndon B. Johnson touring through Appalachian states to promote his War on Poverty program. (Photo: NC DNCR)

President Lyndon B. Johnson launches his War on Poverty program.

1964

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President Lyndon B. Johnson touring through Appalachian states to promote his War on Poverty program. (Photo: NC DNCR)

Inspired by Bayard Rustin's Freedom Budget, President Johnson's campaign focuses on replacing "despair with opportunity."

The War on Poverty directs funding into programs designed to end multigenerational poverty. These programs include Head Start, Medicaid, food stamps, and loans for higher education, which continue to exist today. The "war" will be strongly shaped by the release of the Moynihan Report in 1965, which places the blame and responsibility for Black poverty on single Black mothers.

The first allocation of federal subsidies is used to distribute birth control for low-income families. Some of the early pushback against the programs are rooted in the belief that social relief programs confer "special rights" or "entitlements" that are not deserved.