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Statement by the President Upon Appointing the National Advisory Council on Economic Opportunity.

March 04, 1967

THE APPOINTMENT of the National Advisory Council is further proof of our determination that the war on poverty will be a citizen's war. The members of the Council will serve the public in reviewing, evaluating, and helping to improve the Government's antipoverty efforts.

The Council will recommend to the Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity changes and improvements which should be made in our antipoverty programs, and report to me and to the Congress concerning its findings and recommendations.

In establishing this Council, the Congress has expanded the opportunities for full public participation and involvement in the war on poverty--a war that can be won only through the efforts of a unified and dedicated people.

Note: The President's statement was made public as part of a White House press release which stated that the Council, authorized by the Economic Opportunity Amendments of 1966 (Public Law 89-794; 80 Stat. 1451), would advise the Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity and "report annually to the President and the Congress on the progress of the War on Poverty."

The release noted that the Chairman of the Council would be Morris I. Leibman, senior partner in the law firm of Leibman, Williams, Bennet, Baird & Minnow of Chicago. It listed the other members of the Council, as follows: Morris Abram, attorney, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison, New York City, and U.S. Representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, Human Rights Commission, New York City; Horace Busby, management consultant, Washington, D.C.; the Most Rev. John P. Cody, Archbishop of Chicago; Rev. George R. Davis, senior minister, National City Christian Church, Washington, D.C.; Otto Eckstein, Harvard University professor, on leave to Stanford University, former member, Council of Economic Advisers; Buford Ellington, Governor of Tennessee; Iren Forrest, chief, Inter-Tribal Council of California Indians, Alturas, Calif.; Dr. Hector P. Garcia, Corpus Christi, Texas; Jesse Kellam, Austin, Texas; Dr. Walter Lane, Temple Terrace, Fla.; Sidney Marland, Jr., superintendent of schools, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Donald McGannon, president, Westinghouse Broadcasting, Inc., New York, N.Y.; Theodore, McKeldin, mayor of Baltimore, Md.; Mrs. Robert McNamara, civic leader and member of the previous OEO Advisory Council, Washington, D.C.; Albert Rains, attorney, Rains & Rains, Gadsden, Ala.; Carl Sanders, attorney, Sanders, Hester and Holley, Atlanta, Ga., and former Governor of Georgia; James Surfridge, president, Retail Clerks International Association, AFL-CIO, Arlington, Va.; David Sullivan, general president, Building Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO, New York City; Louie Welch, mayor of Houston, Texas; Whitney Young, executive director, National Urban League, New Rochelle, N.Y.

The statement was released at San Antonio, Texas.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President Upon Appointing the National Advisory Council on Economic Opportunity. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/237632

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