How we cite our quotes: (Sentence)
Quote #1
Your imagination, your initiative, and your indignation will determine whether we build a society where progress is the servant of our needs, or a society where old values and new visions are buried under unbridled growth. (12)
Growth and prosperity are awesome, but Johnson knew that not all Americans had an equal shot. "Indignation" is the word that jumps out here. LBJ and a lot of Great Society proponents didn't understand just how deep indignation ran in some communities. They would soon find out.
Quote #2
The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. (14-15)
It's important to remember that Johnson was addressing an overwhelmingly white audience. In 1970, an organization of Black student groups at Michigan led a university strike to demand that the administration increase minority enrollment.
Quote #3
Each year more than 100,000 high school graduates, with proved ability, do not enter college because they cannot afford it. (60)
Does this sound familiar? We've been having a discussion about the affordability of college for a very long time. Lots of people were feeling the Bern on this issue in 2016. If anything, college is getting much less affordable.
Quote #4
So, will you join in the battle to give every citizen the full equality which God enjoins and the law requires, whatever his belief, or race, or the color of his skin? (85)
Equality is the law of the land. It says so in the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause, and that amendment was ratified in 1868. Now it's 1964 and way past time to make equality a reality. Five weeks after the speech, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The following August, the Voting Rights Act became law.
Quote #5
Will you join in the battle to give every citizen an escape from the crushing weight of poverty? (86)
Johnson's War on Poverty became the centerpiece of his Great Society. About 34 million Americans lived in poverty in 1964. Officially, that meant they had incomes of $3,000 a year or less at a time when the median American income was $6,600. (Today, those numbers are more like 47 million, $24,000, and $54,000.) How's that war going?