LBJ signs Economic Opportunity Act creating Job Corps

President Lyndon Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 on August 20, creating Job Corps as a residential education and vocational training program for disadvantaged youth ages 16-21. Sargent Shriver, head of the new Office of Economic Opportunity, ran the program. The first centers opened January 1965 with a $96.5 million first-year appropriation.