JFK’s “New Frontier”

Read the following quote from President Kennedy.

What are the goals of the new President?

“WE STAND ON THE EDGE OF A NEW FRONTIER—THE FRONTIER OF

UNFULFILLED HOPES AND DREAMS, A FRONTIER OF UNKNOWN

OPPORTUNITIES AND BELIEFS IN PERIL. BEYOND THAT FRONTIER ARE

UNCHARTED AREAS OF SCIENCE AND SPACE, UNSOLVED PROBLEMS OF PEACE AND WAR, UNCONQUERED PROBLEMS OF IGNORANCE AND

PREJUDICE, UNANSWERED QUESTIONS OF POVERTY AND SURPLUS.”

JFK, 1960

JFK’s “The New Frontier”

Became the label for JFK’s domestic programs.

Many of JFK’s liberal ideas and programs won’t become effective until after his death. Aid to education and the elderly Increase in minimum wage Urban and civil rights reform Space exploration

Other New Frontier Reforms

DESCRIBE THE IMPACT OF THE NEW FRONTIER ON EACH OF THE FOLLOWING TOPICS

Minimum wage Housing Act of 1961 Twenty-fourth Amendment Equal Pay Act Aid to the unemployed/poor Aid to the elderly The Environment Consumer Protection Worldly relations

Initiatives of the New Frontier

Congress passed an increase in minimum wage from $1.15 to $1.25 an hour

The Housing Act of 1961 provided $4.9 billion for urban renewal

24th Amendment outlawed the poll tax Equal Pay Act=same pay for same work

Aid to the unemployed/poor and elderly

Executive order to provide food to unemployed Americans

Area Redevelopment law to help communities plagued with long-term unemployment

Extending Social Security benefits Programs to help ailing families become

independent of government benefits Federal program to address juvenile

delinquency Americans were able to retire at 62WHY?

Environment/Consumer Protection

More federal resources to stop water pollution

Construction of the world’s largest nuclear power plant in Washington

Increased laws on food and drugs being tested before being sold to consumers

Worldly Relations

Trade Expansion Actreduce American tariffs to encourage free trade

Nuclear Test Ban Treaty—limited testing of nuclear weapons to underground only

Other Impact Programs JFK used deficit spending to create more

jobs, fund programs and stimulate the economy

Presidential Commission on the Status of Women led by Eleanor Roosevelt—documented ongoing discrimination

Continued the funding of NASA Announced the goal of landing a man on the

moon Project Mercury—manned space flight

Alan Shepard—1st American in space in May 1961 John Glenn—1st American to orbit the earth Feb.

20, 1962