On the 50th anniversary of Lyndon Johnson’s declaration of America’s War on Poverty, Martha Bailey discusses the benefits and failures of the programs that emanated from this effort starting in the mid-1960s. She says we should look beyond the small decreases in poverty rates — to desegragation and improvements in child health, for example — in evaluating the worth of the War on Poverty.

More about Bailey says we need to embrace successes and learn from failures of War on Poverty >