President Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act, part of the War on Poverty, which Lady Bird Johnson had advocated for, including Head Start.
On August 20, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act, the centerpiece legislation of his War on Poverty, creating programs including the Job Corps, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), and the framework that would soon produce Head Start.
Lady Bird Johnson had been an active internal advocate for anti-poverty measures, particularly those addressing early childhood education and the wellbeing of children in impoverished rural and urban communities—concerns rooted in her own experience of the rural South. She would later become a highly visible public champion of Head Start once it launched in 1965, visiting classrooms and lending her prestige to publicize the program nationally.
While the signing itself was a presidential act, Lady Bird's behind-the-scenes counsel and her subsequent public advocacy for the resulting programs exemplified her broader role as a policy partner rather than a merely decorative First Lady. Her involvement helped build public support for the War on Poverty's education-focused initiatives, and her later personal association with Head Start contributed significantly to the program's public visibility and enduring popularity, cementing anti-poverty education as a signature concern of her tenure alongside her environmental work.