JFK’S NEW FRONTIER

ELECTION OF 1960

• Senator John F. Kennedy vs. Vice President Richard M. Nixon

• Kennedy• Young (43 years old)• Young family (wife and two children)• Irish-Catholic from Massachusetts• Wealthy background• Outgoing, relaxed, optimistic, energetic

• Nixon• Quaker from California• Financial hardship• Stiff, older• More experience

ELECTION OF 1960

• Major Issues• Economy- boost• Cold War- stop the spread of communism

• Television Debates• Television advertising for campaigns• Influenced election outcome• First time Presidential debates were televised• Nixon looked sweaty and nervous• Kennedy appeared calm, collected, and relaxed

• Kennedy Wins

NEW FRONTIER• New Frontier- Kennedy’s Domestic Agenda

Hoped to:• Increase aid to education• Provide health insurance to the elderly• Create Department of Urban Affairs

• Difficult to pass new programs- little support from Congress

• Victories• Invested in defense and space exploration• Raised minimum wage• Area Redevelopment Act• Housing Act

WOMEN’S RIGHTS• Presidential Commission on the Status of Women,

1961• Federal action against gender discrimination• Right of women to equal pay• Equal Pay Act, 1963• Inspired similar groups at state levels• Study the status of women

• Women worked in important positions in Kennedy Administration• Esther Peterson- Assistant Secretary of Labor, Director of

the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor

PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

• President’s Panel on Mental Retardation, 1961

• Fund research• developmental disabilities• educational and vocational programs for people with disabilities

• Residential (instead of institutional) treatment centers• Grants for prenatal services for women in low-income groups

• Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act of 1963• Grants for research centers• Funds for training educational personnel• Grants for construction of mental health centers

PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

• Eunice Kennedy Shriver, JFK’s sister• Camp Shriver, 1962- home day camp for children

with developmental disabilities• Offered people with disabilities a chance to compete

physically• Later became the Special Olympics program

• First Special Olympics Games held in Chicago, 1968