Just weeks after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, his successor President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a “War on Poverty” that would be the signature policy objective of his administration. “No single weapon will suffice” in the battle against poverty, President Johnson argued in his first State of the Union Address in 1964, but rather a “special effort” with multiple legislative components including economic development, youth employment projects, expanded minimum wage laws, and action to expand the Food Stamp Program.