Social problems and attempts to tackle them - OCR ASocial problems and poverty in the USA during the 1960s

Poverty in the USA during the 1960s

John F Kennedy became president of the USA in 1961. At this time many people in America were experiencing prosperity and were able to enjoy modern luxuries. Half of all Americans owned a car by 1967. However, there were tens of millions of people who lived in poverty. In 1966, 19 per cent of people living in rural areas experienced poverty, compared to 14 per cent of those living in urban areas. Also, around 41-per cent of non-white people lived in poverty. They were much more likely to receive low wages because of discrimination, in both employment and education.

Poverty led to social problems across America. Dr Martin Luther King Jnr blamed poverty as a cause of the Watts Riots in Los Angeles in 1965.

Further social problems

Other social problems included:

• Racial segregation in education. This meant that African Americans were less likely to attend school. Also, most of the institutions they went to had more limited resources compared to the schools that only admitted white people. In 1960, 43 per cent of white students attended four or more years of secondary school compared to just 20 per cent of African Americans.
• Finding work was an issue. In 1963, roughly 5 per cent of white people and around 10 per cent of African Americans were unemployed.
• Standards of medical care depended on the wealth of the individual. Citizens were required to get medical insurance. The elderly struggled to pay insurance and were at risk of not getting the medical care they needed.
• The most expensive hospitals to attend in New York recorded 97 per cent of patients as white. In contrast, the poorest hospitals in the same city recorded that the majority of their patients were non-white, such as African American or Hispanic.