Chapter 24: Camelot to Watergate "Poverty Then and Now" Introduction      In this chapter you learned about President Johnson's Great Society programs—several of which were aimed at eradicating poverty in America. Despite Johnson's efforts, many people remained poor—a trend that has continued to this day. Go onto the Internet and examine poverty in America over the years. Destination Title: U.S. Census Bureau Note: Clicking on the link above will launch a new browser window. Need help using your browser for this activity? Click here for tips. Directions Start at the Census Bureau Web site. In the People category, click on Poverty. Under Current Population Survey, click on Poverty in the United States: 2001. Under Poverty Highlights, click on Graphs. Click on Number of Poor and Poverty Rate: 1959-2001. Examine the graph to answer the following questions. 1. Estimate the poverty rate in 1969. About how many millions of people were considered to be poor that year? 2. What was the poverty rate in 2001? Why were there about ten million more people in poverty in 2001, despite the fact that the 1969 and 2001 poverty rates were about the same? 3. What do the shaded bars on the graph represent? 4. According to the graph, does the poverty rate and the number of poor increase or decrease during a recession? Why might this be so?