Great Society Speech: Resources

Websites

LBJ Presidential Library

All you've ever wanted to know and more in 45 million document pages, 650,000 photos, and 5,000 hours of recordings.

American Experience

LBJ gets the PBS treatment as part of its series The Presidents.

Volunteers for America

50 years of VISTA.

Sixty from the '60s

An interactive exhibit featuring 60 individuals who shaped the 1960s.

Movie and TV Productions

LBJ: The Early Years (1987)

Randy Quaid won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of the president's rise in this made-for-TV movie.

Selma (2014)

The critically acclaimed depiction of a pivotal moment in civil rights history has its share of detractors who say LBJ isn't portrayed fairly.

All the Way (2016)

Bryan Cranston reprises his Tony Award–winning Broadway role as LBJ in this HBO drama.

LBJ (2016)

Woody Harrelson steps into Johnson's presidential shoes in this upcoming political biopic.

Articles and Interviews

Seeing Is Believing

Joseph A. Califano, special assistant to LBJ from 1965 through the end of his presidential term, talks about the administration's accomplishments.

The Great Society at 50

The Washington Post recaps the Great Society on the 50th anniversary of LBJ's speech.

Did We Win the War on Poverty?

A cool learning guide from The New York Times that cuts back and forth from LBJ's Great Society speech and a recent article about poverty in Appalachia. The verdict? The war's still on.

Video

An Outbreak of Hope

A concise look at the causes and effects of the Great Society.

Small Miracles

The Office of Economic Opportunity produced this short on the war on poverty.

Audio

The Speech

Audio of the May 22nd, 1964, Great Society speech at the University of Michigan.

Straight from the Boss' Mouth

Six U.S. presidents secretly recorded phone calls and Oval Office conversations. LBJ was one of them. A selection of those tapes can be heard here.

Images

One Day in Dallas

Lyndon Johnson becomes the 36th president of the United States.

Irresistible Force Meets Unmovable Object

The president meets with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., December 1963.

The Poverty Tour

In the spring of 1964 LBJ and the first lady toured Appalachia, one of the poorest regions in the country, to meet with local residents.

Lady Bird Stumps for Lyndon

The Lady Bird Special campaign train heads out in October 1964.

And the Winner Is…

LBJ watches election returns, November 1964, on the Big 3—ABC, CBS, and NBC.

Voting Rights Act

LBJ talks to MLK after signing the Voting Rights Act, August 1965.

The Watts Riots

Days after the Voting Rights Act was signed, riots erupt in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts.

Motown Mayhem

Detroit explodes, 1967.

The Tide Turns

Demonstrators march to protest the war in Vietnam, 1967. Guess who they blamed for it.

Great Society in Action

Lady Bird visits a Head Start class, 1968.

Natural Wonder

Lady Bird among the Texas wildflowers, 1968.

Home on the Range

The president at his ranch in Stonewall, Texas, 1968.