| Description |
xvii, 264 p. ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Note |
"On June 4, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson delivered what he and many others considered the greatest civil rights speech of his career. Proudly, Johnson hailed the new freedoms granted to African Americans due to the newly passed Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, but noted that 'freedom is not enough.' The next stage of the movement would be to secure racial equality 'as a fact and a result.' The speech was drafted by an assistant secretary of labor by the name of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who had just a few months earlier drafted a scorching report on the deterioration of the urban black family in America. When that report was leaked to the press a month after Johnson's speech, it created a whirlwind of controversy from which Johnson's civil rights initiatives would never recover. But Moynihan's arguments proved startlingly prescient, and established the terms of a debate about welfare policy that have endured for forty-five years."--Publisher's description. |
| Contents |
The pluck of the Irish -- The case for national action -- The report -- "The moment lost" -- Families, welfare, and race, 1966-1968 -- Moynihan, Nixon, and the Family Assistance Plan -- Unproductive dialogue, 1971-1983 -- Combating the silence, 1984-1994 -- Welfare reform, slavery, and jeremiads -- Families in the early 2000s -- From Cosby to Obama. |
| Subject |
Moynihan, Daniel P. (Daniel Patrick), 1927-2003 -- Political and social views.
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African American poor families -- Government policy.
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African American families -- Social conditions -- 20th century.
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United States -- Social conditions -- 20th century.
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| ISBN |
9780465013579 (alk. paper) |
|
0465013570 (alk. paper) |
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