We were so honored to host our Special Guest Speaker, Dr. Casey D. Nichols!
Thursday, October 23rd, 2025
6:00pm Reception,
followed by the presentation at 6:30pm
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who contributed to the success of our well-attended Fall Lecture! We hope you found the enlightening presentation by Dr. Casey D. Nichols enjoyable, along with the invigorating discussion that followed. Your participation made the evening a remarkable success.
The museum truly appreciates your support!
How Everyday People, Politicians, and Activists Waged the War on Poverty
When President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act (EOA) into law on August 20, 1964, he made good on promises to wage an “unconditional war on poverty.”
However, Johnson did not anticipate how much the EOA would galvanize existing social justice movements throughout the United States.
Everyday people, politicians, and organizers transformed the EOA into so much more, creating programs and institutions that brought the War on Poverty to life in African American and Mexican Americans communities across the country.
Dr. Casey D. Nichols is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Texas State University. Before starting at Texas State in Fall 2019, Dr. Nichols taught at CSU, East Bay, CSU, Long Beach, and Dickinson College. As a historian, she specializes in the areas of African American history, Mexican American history, U.S. Urban History, Civil Rights History, and Social Justice History. Her current book project, “Poverty Rebels: Black and Brown Protest in Post-Civil Rights America,” examines post-1964 antipoverty policy with a specific focus on how these polices shaped African American and Mexican American activist movements in Los Angeles and brought new significance to Black/Brown relations as U.S. racial paradigm. Her Pacific Historical Review (PHR) article titled, “‘The Magna Carta to Liberate Our Cities’: African Americans, Mexican Americans, and the Model Cities Program in Los Angeles,” was published in Summer 2021 and examines the impact of the Chicano Movement on the U.S. federal government’s Model Cities Program. Dr. Nichols has received several honors, including a Liberal Arts Consortium for Faculty Diversity Postdoctoral Fellowship, Moody Research Grant from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Foundation, and research fellowship from the Huntington Library. In the classroom, Dr. Nichols is deeply invested in connecting history to social justice and teaching US history from the perspective of diverse actors.
Order Dr. Nichols’ book using the link below
https://uncpress.org/9781469684673/poverty-rebels/
The LBJ Museum brought back the Chautauqua, an institution that provided popular adult
education courses and entertainment in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. San Marcos was
the site of a pretty famous Chautauqua around 1900 and their summer camp format proved very
popular for families. The name has staying power with Texas State University as Old Main sits on
Chautauqua Hill and there is a student residence called Chautauqua Hall.
The event is *FREE* and open to the public!
If assistance is needed, please email director@lbjmuseum.com or call (512)353-3300
