Tuesday, May 18, 1965: Head Start

WASHINGTON -- President Johnson said Tuesday 530,000 of "poverty's children" will be given a head start in pre-school guidance centers so they won't already be doomed to fail because of family backgrounds when they start school. More than half the estimated one million disadvantaged children expected to start school next fall will take part in the first summer sessions of Project Head Start. ... The program calls for teaching the children things that most people take for granted. Some of the children have never seen a book, a flush toilet or electric lights. They also will receive medical and dental care.

     -- From Associated Press story: @

     -- 1965 photo, Buffalo, New York, by Milton Rogovin; from Library of Congress

* Johnson's remarks (American Presidency Project): @

* "U.S. Program for Children Set to Begin" (Associated Press, May 18): @
* Office of Head Start, Department of Health and Human Services: @

* National Head Start Association: @

* "Timeline: Head Start's Journey" (Education Week): @

* "Head Start: The War on Poverty goes to school" (EducationNext): @

* "Project Head Start to Help Needy Pre-School Children" (New York Times, March 9, 1965): @
* "Project 'Head Start' Helps Negro Tots" (Jet magazine, June 17, 1965): @
* "Let's Make 'Head Start' Regular Start" (Ebony magazine, September 1965): @
* "Operation Head Start" (1965 video by Goldsholl Associations for Chicago Public Schools; from Chicago Film Archives): @
* "Head Start" (1966 video, Office of Economic Opportunity; from www.criticalpast.com): @
* "Operation Head Start" (1967 video by Paul Burnford Productions for Office of Economic Opportunity): @
* "An Evaluation of Operation Head Start Bilingual Children, Summer, 1965" (Philip Montez, Foundation for Mexican-American Studies, August 1966): @ 
* "Head Start: The Inside Story of America's Most Successful Educational Experiment" (Edward Zigler and Susan Muenchow, 1992): @
* "Project Head Start: Models and Strategies for the Twenty-First Century" (Valora Washington and Ura Jean Oyemade Bailey, 1995): @

* "Critical Perspectives on Project Head Start" (edited by Jeanne Ellsworth and Lynda J. Ames, 1998): @

* "The Birth of Head Start: Preschool Education Policies in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations" (Maris A. Vinovskis, 2005): @

* "Launching the War on Poverty: An Oral History" (Michael L. Gillette, 2010): @
* "The War on Poverty: A New Grassroots History" (edited by Annelise Orleck and Lisa Gayle Hazirjian, 2011): @

* "Head Start Origins and Impacts" (Chloe Gibbs, Jens Ludwig and Douglas L. Miller, from "Legacies of the War on Poverty," 2013): @ 

---