Legacies of the war on poverty, lessons for the future

January 8, 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson's declaration of "unconditional War on Poverty." Yet 15 percent of Americans live in poverty today, and no presidential administration or Congress since the Johnson era has made fighting poverty a top priority.

Exactly fifty years after President Johnson's declaration, the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, the Russell Sage Foundation, and Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity will host forum to offer diverse perspectives on the effects of anti-poverty policies in the United States in areas such as educational attainment, employment, earnings and living standards, and health over the past five decades and in the years to come.

The event will focus on research highlighted in a new book, Legacies of the War on Poverty (Russell Sage Foundation, September 2013). The panel will feature a discussion among the book's editors and commentators from across the political spectrum, who will address policy interventions that grew out of the War on Poverty and provide a fresh look at strategies to fight poverty and promote opportunity.