President Hubert Horatio Humphrey


Part IV



From the History of Social Welfare in America, "Negative Income Tax"

    In response to a recommendation of the 1966 White House Task Force, President Johnson appointed a Commission on Income Maintenance Programs in 1968.  Supported by an adequate and independent staff, including people such as IBM's Thomas Watson and Rand Corporation's Henry Rowen, the commission released its report in November 1969.
    It recommended the "creation of a universal income supplement program [a negative income tax] . . . for all members of the population in need."  The report started that unemployment and underemployment
"were basic facts of American life" and that the economic structure of America "virtually guaranteed" poverty for millions of Americans.  "The simple fact is that most of the poor remain poor because access to income through work is currently beyond their reach."
    Secretary of Labor Moynihan, appointed by President Humphrey, took special interest in the Commission and urged Humphrey to support the measures recommended.  In Congress, the NIT was opposed by conservatives, some who opposed the entire program and others who wished to add on the requirement that those receiving aid have a job.  With large amounts of support from the White House, the votes needed for the bill to pass were kept together and became law in 1971.

From the Encyclopedia Americana, "Humphrey, Hubert"

First Term
    Domestic Affairs-
    Humphrey also faced economic problems. Inflation combined with high unemployment caused hardship for many people.  Working to reduce the high unemployment, Humphrey signed the Full Employment Act, which created federal public service jobs when the unemployment rate was over 3%.  This, with the Negative Income Tax Act signed in later that year, provided unemployed families with a dependable income and helped produce a larger job market.  By 1972, signs of economic recovery were beginning
to show.

From the Encyclopedia Americana, "Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)"

    American civil rights organization founded in 1942 by the American civil rights leader James Leonard Farmer.  The stated purpose of the organization is to create a society in which “race or creed will be
neither asset nor handicap.”  CORE worked to protect the rights of black Americans and seek equal job, housing, and education opportunities for them.  Farmer, who was national director until 1966, advocated a policy of change through nonviolent direct action, such as the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, of which CORE was a sponsor.  After Farmer's retirement, he was succeeded first by Floyd B. McKissick and then in 1968 by Roy E. Innis.
    In the 1960-92 Philadelphia boycotts, as a result of the coordinated effort by almost four hundred back religious leaders and CORE, twenty-four companies, including Pepsi-Cola, Esso, Gulf Oil and Sun Oil,
agreed to hire blacks in specific numbers.  After the Equal Opportunity Act was passed in 1970, which made it illegal for any company to have hiring quotas based on race, CORE organized a march on Washington to demand what they called "affirmative action" by the government.
    This marched served only to unite opposition to the new discrimination supported by CORE.  President Humphrey spoke out against the demonstrators, appealing to American people with the ideal of
equality for all in America, discrimination or preference to none.  Attorney General Powell had been vigorously prosecuting segregated school districts and now began to work with the companies that had been forced into accepting racial quotas to bring a peaceful end to the tense situation.  The Supreme Court later ruled against universities and colleges having racial quotas.

From the Encyclopedia Americana, "Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)"

    Agency of the U.S. Department of Labor established by an act of Congress in 1970. Its main responsibilities are to provide for occupational safety by reducing hazards in the workplace and enforcing
mandatory job safety standards and to implement and improve health programs for workers. OSHA regulations and standards apply to most private businesses in the U.S.

From the Encyclopedia Americana, "Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)"

    By the 1960s, the political atmosphere regarding the status of women in the United States had changed dramatically.  An influential book by Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963), challenged
traditional attitudes about women, and the civil rights movement had given women a model upon which they could base their own fight for equal rights.  The National Organization for Women (NOW), formed in 1966, made the ERA central to its mission.  Within a few years the ERA had won the support of both the Democratic and Republican parties.  When the ERA came before Congress in 1972, it had the support of President Hubert Humphrey.  It received the needed two-thirds majority of both houses, including the
votes of all but eight senators.  The proposed amendment quickly moved to the states in the second phase of the amendment process.
    Opposition to the ERA in the 1970s was similar in some ways to opposition in the 1920s. Conservative politicians and organizations voiced strong opposition to the amendment.  Phyllis Schlafly, one of the
amendment's most vocal opponents, founded Stop ERA, a group that worked to defeat the amendment.  Schlafly alleged that the ERA would force women to take on roles normally reserved for men and that equal rights meant women would give up the “privileges” of womanhood.  She and others also appealed to opponents of abortion, arguing that the ERA would bar any restrictions on abortion.  Despite this opposition, by 1976 the amendment had been ratified by the required 38 states.

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