The federal OEO was created to lead the War on Poverty and to coordinate related programs of all other fe deral agencies. Community Action Agencies (CAAs) were created at the local level to fight the War on Poverty “at home.” Initially, there were no statutory requirements as to their structure, so some CAAs were blue-ribbon panels created by the mayor, others were grass-roots organizations composed entirely of poor people, and others were started by groups of neighbors who met in the local church basement and worked on improving their community.
CAAs varied from grass-roots, community-controlled groups to those with experienced board members and a highly professional staff. Most eventually incorporated as private nonprofit organizations, and a few were created as city agencies. And, especially in the South and in urban areas, many of the staff and board members of CAAs were also leaders in the local civil rights movement. The concepts of civil rights and the people from the civil rights movement were at the core of the thinking and operations of CAAs in the formative years.
The state and local governments were seen as not being very effective in eliminating poverty -- or as being part of the problem. In a rural county in the “ Deep South,” for example, where the population was 50% black and 50% white and almost everybody -- both black and white -- was poor, under the ADC program the local authorities only approved financial assistance for the people they decided were the “deserving poor.” So a typical ADC caseload in 1964 would be 700 white females and 4 black females.
The ratio of the registration of college students in the state university in that same state was even more striking -- thousands of white females and 0 (that’s zero) black females. According to the local customs, the black females did not deserve either benefits from government programs or the opportunity for a higher education at the state university. The EOA supported the social movements that were trying to change this racist reality.
The EOA and the OEO bypassed the state and local governments and directly funded the community groups that were seeking social change. This direct funding was a key element of the community action concept.
Community Action Agencies worked to change public policy from a situation were aid or opportunities were given only to the “deserving poor” to a public policy where aid and opportunities were open to all who were eligible for it and legislatively entitled to it – regardless of race. Using the strategies of direct action, community organization and legal action, the CAAs challenged the structures of segregation head on – and won on virtually every front.
From 1964 into the early 1970’s, under the onslaught of CAAs and other groups the segregationist barriers crumbled into the dust of history.
Another powerful antipoverty strategy used by most CAAs was to help “the dad” get a GED (high school equivalency certificate) and then get a job in a factory. The GED would get him the job, and the job would get him the minimum wage which was enough to lift most families out of poverty. And if it was a union shop the job often provided other benefits as well. The anti-discrimination strategy and the get-a-GED-and-get-a-job strategy were powerful -- they worked (pun!) to get people out of poverty.