Evangelicals & Black Poverty Before the Great Society: What Shall We Do with the Negro?
- Ricky Kyles
- Feb 14
- 7 min read
All is never lost, despite how much a nation rebels against its Creator
I thank God that a Christ-follower must never be forced to resort to total despair. As much as I firmly believe the following:
America is under the Judgment of Almighty God
The African American Church as apostatized writ large
No Evangelical, seeking to be faithful to the Word of God, can, in good conscience, align with the Democratic Party, as presently constituted, period, full-stop, and end of story.
I am nonetheless encouraged that the triune God will never leave His creation without a faithful remnant upon the Earth. It is similar to what God had to remind the great Prophet of the Old Testament, Elijah, even after Elijah had a firsthand demonstration of God's mighty hand. Despite seeing God vanquish the prophets of Baal up close and personal, Elisha fell into a great state of depression and sought to flee from the evil Jezebel. God reminded Elijah that there were 7,000 who would not bend the knee to Baal, and despite the apostasy of the African American church, there remain faithful preachers like Bishop Alton Williams.
Just like the Apostle Peter, Elijah, like Christ-followers of this present day, is quick to forget God's mighty hand in the past, and in Peter's case, the very recent past. As quickly as Peter was able to proclaim, "Thou art the Christ," he quickly resorted to failed human reasoning. So much so that Christ had to sternly rebuke Peter and instruct him, "To get behind thee." That is just how fickle that even the ardent Christ-follower can be at times.
So, I was delighted to be forwarded a clip from my Sista Gurl Pam, which showed Bishop Alton Williams prophetically speaking about how the African-American (he used the moniker Black, which I loathe) experienced a sudden negative downward shift. Bishop Williams identified 1964 as the pivotal turning point for the dramatic change for the worse in Black America.
I went on to add some salient points that demonstrate, backed with hard data, that President Lyndon B. Johnson's (LBJ) Great Society never delivered on its promised goals and, in fact, weakened the African American (aka Black) family.
Image of Lyndon B Johnson, our 36th President
Now, being as charitable as one can safely be, I am not accusing LBJ of malfensance but I am strongly advocating that Satan took LBJ's plan and used it for his evil purposes. The numbers speak for themselves, but only for those with spiritual eyes to see.
The Race Hustlers of our current day will lazily and disengenously lay the cause at the feet of systemic racism, but esteemed scholar Thomas Sowell is able to demonstrate with hard data that even under oppressive Jim Crowism, People of Color still flourished before LBJ's governmental intervention.
The Promise of the Great Society
When Lyndon B. Johnson launched the War on Poverty in 1964, he declared:
“The War on Poverty is not a struggle simply to support people, to make them dependent on the generosity of others. It is a struggle to give people a chance.”— LBJ, 1964 Remarks upon signing the Economic Opportunity Acthttps://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-upon-signing-the-economic-opportunity-act
The stated aim of the Great Society was clear: reduce and ultimately eradicate poverty, especially generational poverty affecting African Americans in urban America.
But more than 60 years later, the data demands serious examination.
How Much Has Been Spent?
The scale of Great Society poverty spending is enormous.
Cumulative Federal Anti-Poverty Spending
According to analysis from the Heritage Foundation:
“Since the beginning of the War on Poverty, taxpayers have spent over $22 trillion on anti-poverty programs.”https://www.heritage.org/poverty-and-inequality/report/the-war-poverty-after-50-years
The Cato Institute similarly notes:
“Federal and state governments spend roughly $1 trillion annually on means-tested welfare programs.”https://www.cato.org/commentary/whats-missing-war-poverty
Other cumulative estimates place the total between $22–25 trillion (inflation-adjusted since 1965).
To put that in perspective:
$22+ trillion exceeds the inflation-adjusted cost of all major U.S. wars combined.
Annual spending now exceeds $1 trillion per year on means-tested programs.
This includes:
Medicaid
SNAP (food stamps)
Housing assistance
TANF
Earned Income Tax Credit
Supplemental Security Income
and dozens of other programs
What Happened to Poverty Rates?
According to historical tables from the U.S. Census Bureau:
1959 Black poverty rate: 55%+
1968: approximately 33%
1980: ~32%
1990: ~31%
2019 (historic low): ~18.8%
Yes — poverty declined sharply in the 1960s.
But after the early drop, poverty rates plateaued for decades.
Even at its historic low, nearly 1 in 5 African Americans remained in poverty.
That is not eradication. That is persistence.
The Structural Question
If over $22 trillion has been spent, why does poverty remain?
That question divides economists and policymakers.
Critics argue:
Welfare programs reduced work incentives.
Dependency replaced opportunity.
Family structure declined post-1965.
Bureaucratic expansion substituted for economic mobility.
Defenders argue:
Poverty would be worse without these programs.
Social insurance reduces suffering.
Structural racism required intervention.
But one fact is undisputed:
The Great Society did not eliminate poverty.
And when policies are evaluated, outcomes matter.
A Biblical Reflection
Scripture affirms compassion for the poor (Proverbs 14:31), yet it also emphasizes:
Work (2 Thessalonians 3:10)
Family order (Ephesians 6:1–4)
Personal responsibility (Proverbs 6:6–11)
The government may restrain injustice. But the government cannot regenerate hearts.
Public policy can assist. It cannot be redeemed.
Black Poverty Before the Great Society: The Data Most People Ignore
From 1940 to 1960, Black poverty in America declined dramatically — from roughly 87% to 47%. That is a forty-point drop in twenty years. And it occurred before the 1964 War on Poverty and the major federal welfare expansion of the Great Society.
Below is the visual representation of the data.
Line chart showing the decline in Black poverty rate from 1940 to 2020, highlighting a steep drop before the War on Poverty.
Source data: U.S. Census Bureau – Historical Poverty Tableshttps://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-poverty-people.html
The Census data demonstrates that the steepest decline in Black poverty before the Great Society occurred prior to the expansion of large-scale federal redistribution programs.
That is not ideology. That is a historical measurement.
Thomas Sowell on Black Poverty Before the Great Society
Image of esteemed scholar Thomas Sowell
Economist Thomas Sowell has consistently pointed to this period in American economic history.
In discussing the poverty rate decline prior to the War on Poverty, Sowell states:
“The black poverty rate fell dramatically before the War on Poverty began.”
In Wealth, Poverty and Politics (2015), Sowell argues that major drivers of economic improvement included:
Expanding industrial employment
Migration from the rural South to urban labor markets
Rising labor participation
Educational attainment
Strong family formation patterns
Hoover Institution interview:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGYl17DiEwo
Sowell’s argument is not that government policy had no effect. His argument is that the largest structural decline in poverty predated the Great Society expansion.
That forces a serious policy question:
Did the War on Poverty accelerate gains that were already happening?
Or did it alter incentives in ways that slowed momentum?
“What Shall We Do with the Negro?”
Image of Frederick Douglass
After emancipation, many asked the paternalistic question:
“What shall we do with the Negro?”
Frederick Douglass responded with clarity in 1865:
“Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us.”
He continued:
“If the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall.”
Douglass was not advocating cruelty. He was rejecting dependency and paternalism. He was calling for liberty, equal protection under law, and the removal of artificial barriers — not perpetual management.
That historical voice deserves to be heard in modern policy debates.
The Moral and Historical Question
When we look honestly at Black poverty before the Great Society, the data reveal:
The sharpest decline occurred from1940–1960
Poverty continued declining after 1964, but at a slower pace
Long-term progress occurred alongside fluctuations
Final Assessment
The Great Society dramatically expanded federal spending in the name of justice.
It reduced poverty from catastrophic 1959 levels.
But trillions later:
Poverty persists.
Dependency remains.
Inequality debates intensify.
If eradication was the goal, it was not achieved.
And serious Evangelicals must ask whether state-centered solutions replaced moral and spiritual renewal.
Serious Christ-followers should be willing to examine data without fear. As Jesus Christ said, the Truth, even the hard and difficult Truth, will set one free and set one free indeed.
When the African American community started to trust in chariots and horses, instead of God, their Creator, it is precisely when God turned His back on the African American community, and it serves us right for Him doing so. We have no one to blame but ourselves.
Emotional narratives are not evidence. Historical trends must be evaluated soberly.
The question is not partisan, and the answer, the solution, is always spiritual. So, unless there is a spiritual reckoning in the African American community, we will continue to see life in the African American community continue to experience pathology.
The question is whether dependency or dignity best serves human flourishing. What best serves human flourishing is a return to Judeo-Christian values that allowed the African American community to flourish, even as the moral condition of America was hostile to African Americans. It is when the African American bought the lie from Satan himself that we started to witness the deterioration of the African American family.
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As always, keep your hands to the plow and seek to serve for an Audience of One.
With fear & trembling,
Ricky V Kyles Sr. DEd.Min
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