Oklahoma Academic Standard 7. The student will analyze the causes and effects of significant domestic events and policies from 1945 to 1975.

Objective 7.2  Analyze the ongoing social and political transformations within the United States. 

  A. Summarize and examine the United States Supreme Court’s use of the 14th Amendment incorporation doctrine in applying the Bill of Rights to the states, thereby securing and further defining individual rights and civil liberties. 

  B. Assess the rise of liberalism in the 1960s and the lasting impact of President Lyndon Johnson’s civil rights initiatives, the war on poverty, and the Great Society. 

In a Nutshell

Students should understand the important role played by the Supreme Court as it issued a series of decisions incorporating the Bill of Rights so as to be binding upon the states. In addition, Lyndon B. Johnson signed several landmark pieces of civil rights legislation which have lasting force today. Students should develop an understanding of the national government’s focus on resolving the problems of society, poverty, and healthcare characterized by the efforts of Johnson’s Great Society proposals.

Teacher Action 

Student Action 

• Facilitate student analysis of the possible consequences, both intended and unintended, of domestic policies during the Johnson administration.  

• Engage in a range of deliberative and democratic processes to develop strategies to address authentic, real-world problem in the community and out-of-school contexts related to Constitutional principles and applications of the 14th Amendment. 

Key Concepts 

Misconceptions 

• protections of the 14th Amendment; due process, equal protection

• goals of Great Society to eliminate poverty and racial injustice

• similarities to New Deal agenda and programs

• "War on Poverty", Equal Opportunity Act (1964), Job Corps 

• Medicare, Medicaid, federal funding of public schools, welfare

• gay liberation movement; raid on Stonewall Inn 

• Some students's view of the Johnson Administration may be dominated by issues related to the Vietnam War, while neglecting to recognize the permanent changes in domestic policy designed to address poverty and economic inequities. 

Instructional Resources