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Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-KGH-03
In this interview Heath discusses the Office of Education during the transition from President Dwight D. Eisenhower to President John F. Kennedy [JFK]; JFK’s task force for education; problems when a new leader comes in; working with Congress; the National Defense Education Act and other education legislation; JFK and the Church-State issue in education; Abraham A. Ribicoff as Secretary of HEW; leadership within the Office of Education; Anthony J. Celebrezze as Secretary of HEW; Wilbur Cohen in HEW; reorganization of HEW; various education projects; new HEW programs under JFK and President Lyndon B. Johnson; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and how it intersected with education programs; and the transformation in how Americans viewed education, among other issues.
Oral history
John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection
JFKOH-KGH-02
In this interview Heath discusses how she came to join the Office of Education; the leadership within the Office of Education and different ideas on how it should be run; other agencies within the Department of Health, Education and Welfare [HEW]; changes in the status and administration of HEW; various pieces of education legislation; the 1954 Supreme Court decision on separate but equal and segregation in schools; international education affairs; the reasons for pushing for general school aid over categorical aid; the 1955 White House conference on education; coalescing all the organizations within HEW into one voice for the Department; working with other Departments; the International Labor Organization and the United Nations; getting political support from the different presidential Administrations; the nationalization of the Suez Canal; the shift to considering social matters in a much broader context; the impact of the Sputnik launch on the Office of Education; and the National Defense Education Act, among other issues.