“We—you and I—[the President], the Congress and all the American people—must bend our energies to the tasks before us. Poverty and hunger, injustice and illiteracy must be fought because it is right that we fight them. And being right and possible, it becomes our duty.”
Our Quote of the Week suggests that abolishing poverty is possible, and that it is the right thing to do. It also highlights that it is up to all of us, political leaders and citizens alike, to make it happen. We share these words to coincide with the 62nd anniversary of the signing of the Economic Opportunity Act this week, which President Johnson signed into law on August 20, 1964.
This week’s quote is from a speech that Sargent Shriver gave earlier in 1964, the Address to the United Negro College Fund Symposium, which brings focus to a concept central to the War on Poverty: that unless we truly open opportunity to all citizens, we have failed to fulfill the promise of our nation. Shriver stresses that the fight for civil rights and the fight against poverty are part of the same struggle, one that has defined our collective quest to fulfill the nation’s promise for centuries:
“The struggle for civil rights and the war against poverty are thus all part of the same battle. It is a battle we have fought ever since a struggling nation was established on the edge of a wild and new continent. It is a battle to allow every citizen the full rewards of his capacity. Other nations have had other reasons for existence. The American nation exists for that purpose—of opening opportunity for its people. To the extent we have failed to bring opportunity to all, to that extent we have failed as a country and as a people. This is a great land, and it has achieved much for many. But if it is to fulfill the promise we have always held, it will now go forward to offer fulfillment to all.”
The signing of the Economic Opportunity Act in August 1964 formalized Johnson’s pledge to wage an “unconditional war on poverty in America.” As this week’s speech shows, Sargent Shriver had already been working on the issue of poverty for several months by the time the Office of Econmic Opportunity was created. He was appointed by President Johnson to lead the efforts on February 1, 1964, a few short weeks after the President’s first State of the Union Address. You can hear their first, dramatic conversation about Sarge’s appointment here.
In the months that followed his appointment, Sargent Shriver gathered a team and designed the Office of Economic Opportunity, as well as its programs, from the ground up. The programs were designed to give Americans “a hand up, not a handout,” supporting citizens in various stages of life, in the areas of early childhood education, child care, job seeking, health care, legal aid, community organizing, and more. The programs, including Head Start, Job Corps, VISTA, Community Action, Legal Services, and Foster Grandparents, continue to exist in various forms, and still support and empower Americans today—despite efforts by virtually every administration over the past six decades to shrink or eliminate them. The programs’ resilience is a testament to their effectiveness in providing, local, community-based support to individuals and families in need.
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