When Lyndon B. Johnson took over as president after Kennedy was assassinated, he named his strive for domestic programs the Great Society. One of these programs was the Tax Reduction Act, which lowered income tax rates by a large percentage, and was particularly aimed towards those in the lower class. What this program presumably meant to do was increase spending by the citizens to fulfill Kennedy’s original goal of lowering taxes during his presidency. It can also be noted that helping lower class citizens would make the country generally happier, which seemed to be Johnson’s primary goal with his domestic programs. Another program was the Civil Rights Act, which permanently made it illegal in the U.S. to segregate or discriminate people based on their race or gender. Furthermore, “the legislation was enacted after the longest filibuster (six months) in Senate history,” demonstrating the tension this act assumedly released (Smith “Civil”). The act possibly would have originally been enacted under Kennedy, but he was assassinated before it happened. Therefore, it can be seen that there is a common theme of Lyndon Johnson finishing the tasks that Kennedy …show more content…
Many events led up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, one of which was the story of the Little Rock Nine in September of 1957. The Little Rock Nine were nine African-American students that attended a previously all-white school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Discrimination was definitely present, with “Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, who used armed troops to bar the nine students from entering the school” (Ramsey). Further negative interactions between the governor and the African-American population occurred, like the governor bringing in the National Guard to block the entrance, as well as mobs of white citizens against the breach of segregation. This went on until Eisenhower himself provided the students with troops in order to allow their entry into the school. The significance of this event was the fact that a school physically had two different races in attendance, something that had never happened before in U.S. history. Furthermore, this event arguably gave more opportunities for interracial interactions in society, breaking the barrier between segregation and