<P> The political realignment allowed House leaders to alter rules that had allowed Southern Democrats to kill New Frontier and civil rights legislation in committee, which aided efforts to pass Great Society legislation . In 1965, the first session of the Eighty - Ninth Congress created the core of the Great Society . It began by enacting long - stalled legislation such as Medicare and federal aid to education and then moved into other areas, including high - speed mass transit, rental supplements, truth in packaging, environmental safety legislation, new provisions for mental health facilities, the Teacher Corps, manpower training, the Head Start program, aid to urban mass transit, a demonstration cities program, a housing act that included rental subsidies, and an act for higher education . The Johnson Administration submitted 87 bills to Congress, and Johnson signed 84, or 96%, arguably the most successful legislative agenda in US congressional history . </P> <P> Historian Alan Brinkley has suggested that the most important domestic achievement of the Great Society may have been its success in translating some of the demands of the civil rights movement into law . Four civil rights acts were passed, including three laws in the first two years of Johnson's presidency . The Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbade job discrimination and the segregation of public accommodations . </P> <P> The Voting Rights Act of 1965 assured minority registration and voting . It suspended use of literacy or other voter - qualification tests that had sometimes served to keep African - Americans off voting lists and provided for federal court lawsuits to stop discriminatory poll taxes . It also reinforced the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by authorizing the appointment of federal voting examiners in areas that did not meet voter - participation requirements . The Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965 abolished the national - origin quotas in immigration law . The Civil Rights Act of 1968 banned housing discrimination and extended constitutional protections to Native Americans on reservations . </P> <P> The most ambitious and controversial part of the Great Society was its initiative to end poverty . The Kennedy Administration had been contemplating a federal effort against poverty . Johnson, who, as a teacher, had observed extreme poverty in Texas among Mexican - Americans, launched an "unconditional war on poverty" in the first months of his presidency with the goal of eliminating hunger, illiteracy, and unemployment from American life . The centerpiece of the War on Poverty was the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, which created an Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) to oversee a variety of community - based antipoverty programs . </P>

Name two laws that were passed as part of the great society