Things Fall Apart; The Centre Cannot Hold

Questions on the Assignment?  writing advice

Research assignment (specs will be up by next class):  discuss how one of the policies that we discuss or read about in class has affected a specific individual.  

For next time: Johnson, ch. 8

Poverty and the Politics of Counting (a recurrent theme from now on)

From last time: KFK in WV; The Other America

Mollie Orshansky and the poverty measure

Discovery of poor people (Andrew p. 80) and The West Wing version

Why the dropoff in poverty post-WII?  Hint: old people

War on Poverty

The war metaphor

Causes of poverty?

• Social
• Economic

OEO and Job Corps -- callback to CCC

Problems

• Funding (guns v. butter)
• Community Action and clashes with local politics

Expansion of Food Stamps:  coalition politics

Head Start

ESEA (Johnson 238-239) -- 90% of schools eventually get federal money

Things fall apart

Mounting criticism of Great Society Programs (Andrew 87)

Riots (Andrew p. 81)

• Harlem (1964) -- Malcolm X
• Watts (1965)
• Newark and Detroit (1967)
• DC, Baltimore, Chicago (1968)

1968 assassinations:  MLK and RFK

In 1967, Miami police Chief Walter Headley said "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" during hearings about crime in his city,

Violent crime rate (per 100k)