Texas poverty and liberal politics: The Office of Economic Opportunity and the War on Poverty in the Lone Star State
Опубликовано на портале: 19-05-2004
2001
Организация: |
Texas Tech University (Texas Tech University) |
Подтип: | PhD |
Тематические разделы: | Социология, Социальная стратификация |
Aннотация:
This dissertation represents the only historical study to date to recount the history of the War on Poverty in Texas. The study describes the dimensions of poverty in the state in the mid-twentieth century; explains the development of the various programs of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), the primary anti-poverty agency of the Johnson administration; and traces how these programs were put into practice in Texas.
The agencies analyzed include the Job Corps, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA),
Headstart, the Neighborhood Youth Corps (NYC), and the Concentrated Employment Program
(CEP). The study devotes special attention to the Community Action Program (CAP)
as the largest and most controversial program of the OEO. Separate chapters recount
the history of the CAP in San Antonio, Houston, and El Paso. The study emphasizes
the association between the civil rights movement and the War on Poverty. Although
the OEO billed the War on Poverty as a “colorblind” effort, many politically
vocal black and Chicano Texans, along with most white conservatives, viewed the program
as a civil rights effort. Because of this perception, and because of the OEO's rhetoric
of “maximum feasible participation” of the poor, Mexican American and
African American civil rights activists demanded control of War on Poverty funding
within their respective communities. As the Chicano youth and Black Power movements
emerged, the agenda of civil rights activism changed from integrationism to militance.
Calls for self determination from the state's barrios and ghettoes led to conflicts
between mi1itants and liberals allied with Johnson over control of federal anti-poverty
dollars. Because of militant involvement in some Community Action Agencies, the War
on Poverty also became associated in the minds of opponents with the street violence
that swept the nation's cities through the 1960s. The history of the War on Poverty
in Texas reveals how these factors coalesced to contribute to the collapse of the
political and social consensus that had informed the liberalism of the Johnson era.
Ссылки: |
http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/sear... |

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