Friends of the LBJ Library | Apr, 9 2026 6:30PM - 8:00PM
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson launched a “War on Poverty” during his State of the Union address. This ambitious legislative initiative aimed to expand opportunities and reduce poverty nationwide. To lead this effort, Johnson appointed Sargent Shriver, the Peace Corps's founding director. Under Shriver's leadership, significant programs were established, including Head Start, Job Corps, Community Action, and Upward Bound. On April 9, we held a discussion to explore Sargent Shriver's enduring legacy and the ongoing challenges of poverty and affordability in America.
The program featured two 40-minute discussions: the first included reflections from members of the Shriver family on his life and work, while the second examined the current state of poverty in the U.S. The discussions also highlighted insights from Shriver's newly discovered memoir, We Called It a War: Lessons Learned from the Fight to End Poverty, about his experience leading the War on Poverty.
Speakers included:
- Dr. Lucy Di Rosa, Executive Director, Sargent Shriver Peace Institute
- Adam Green, Associate Professor in the Departments of Race, Diaspora & Indigeneity and History, University of Chicago; and author of the introduction to We Called It a War
- Bobby Shriver, Civic leader and philanthropist
- Maria Shriver, Journalist, author, and documentary producer
- Mark Shriver, Public servant, author, and child-advocacy leader
- Timothy Shriver, Disability rights and inclusion leader
- Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis, Founder and Executive Director, Kairos Center; and Co-Chair, Poor People’s Campaign
This program was hosted by the Friends of the LBJ Library.
About the Book
We Called It a War: Lessons Learned from the Fight to End Poverty is Sargent Shriver’s own account of his leadership of the War on Poverty, which he undertook under President Lyndon Johnson between 1964 and 1968. His memoir offers an inside view of how programs, including Head Start and Community Action, were conceived and implemented. The book gives the reader intimate insights into the opportunities and challenges of translating President Johnson’s audacious pledge to end poverty into a working set of social programs that continue to empower communities across the United States today. Shriver’s words reveal a public administrator skilled at creating major social policy; a global citizen driven by his spiritual faith and commitment to social justice; a social entrepreneur whose skeptical approach to bureaucracy enabled him to liberate the creative energies of the diverse individuals who collaborated with him; and a politician who earned the trust and respect of his adversaries.
We Called It a War reminds us that to achieve equal opportunity and justice for all, we must again create an environment that nurtures bold ideas and empowers decisive, community-based action.
Speakers
Dr. Lucy Di Rosa is Executive Director of the Sargent Shriver Peace Institute (SSPI). She developed the communications function for SSPI and has continued to lead the outreach, community building, and content management for the digital and physical archives. As part of her archival work, Lucy discovered We Called It a War.
Working in collaboration with SSPI’s Founding Director, Jamie Price, Lucy has developed conflict resolution workshops that have been delivered to staff at Community Action agencies in various regions. Lucy is an experienced instructor and researcher who speaks several languages, including English, Italian, and French.
Adam Green is a long-time collaborator of the Sargent Shriver Peace Institute. He appeared in the documentary about Sargent Shriver, American Idealist: The Story of Sargent Shriver, and contributed to the planning and proposal of the Sargent Shriver Fellows Program at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. Adam wrote an introduction to as well as helped annotate We Called It a War. The memoir outlines Sargent Shriver’s efforts to lead the War on Poverty.
Adam is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity, and of History. His field specialties include modern US history; African American history; urban history; comparative racial politics; and cultural economy. He is among the leading scholars of the history of African Americans in Chicago and has directed that expertise toward several major public history projects, including the campaign to raise awareness about systemic police torture in the city, Chicago’s pathbreaking policy on monuments and memorials, and the recently released Obama Presidency Oral History projects coordinated by Columbia University’s INCITE program. He is closely involved with several grassroots networks and leadership academies in the city, engaging established and emerging leaders in the city with sustainable transformational policy aims.
Adam is the author of Selling the Race: Culture, Community and Black Chicago, 1940-1955 and co-editor of Time Longer Than Rope: A Century of African American Activism. He is currently working on a book on happiness and its relation to African American life.
Bobby Shriver is a civic leader and philanthropist whose work has centered on translating ambitious social goals into measurable results. He served on the Santa Monica City Council from 2004 to 2012 and was mayor during his tenure, gaining hands-on experience with the local realities that shape family stability: housing, services, public safety, and the cost of living. Bobby co-founded DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) to press for structural change on issues including debt relief and the AIDS crisis, and he later co-founded (RED), which partnered with major brands to raise funds for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Across government and advocacy, his record is rooted in what it takes to mobilize people and institutions toward real outcomes. Bobby lives in Santa Monica, California.
Maria Shriver is an American journalist, author, and documentary producer who has established herself as a national voice through her work in television news, including years as an anchor and correspondent at NBC News and a contributor to Dateline NBC. She has built a career telling stories about American life that connect public policy to what families actually experience. From 2003 to 2011, she served as First Lady of California, where she led major statewide efforts focused on economic opportunity, women’s advancement, and the well-being of children and families. She is also the founder of The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement, which has helped elevate Alzheimer’s as a public-health and family issue. Maria lives in Brentwood, California.
Mark Shriver is a public servant, author, and child-advocacy leader focused on policies that strengthen families and expand opportunity for kids. He served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1995 to 2003, where he worked on the practical mechanics of lawmaking—how programs are designed, funded, implemented, and held accountable. He is President of Save the Children Action Network, leading advocacy to improve outcomes for children in the United States and support child survival efforts globally. He is also the author of A Good Man: Rediscovering My Father, Sargent Shriver, bringing both personal proximity and a practiced public voice to the civic questions raised by We Called It A War. His work keeps the focus where Sargent Shriver kept it: children, families, and government delivery of real results. Mark lives in Bethesda, Maryland.
Timothy Shriver is a longtime disability rights and inclusion leader whose career has centered on dignity, participation, and expanding who gets real power in civic life. He has served as Chairman of Special Olympics since 1996, helping guide one of the world’s most visible movements dedicated to inclusion through sports, community leadership, and public engagement. He founded UNITE, an initiative aimed at bridging divides and strengthening social cohesion through shared values and practical action. Across decades of leadership, he has focused on building institutions that don’t just serve people, but invite them into decision-making and leadership, an idea at the heart of Sargent Shriver’s philosophy of maximum feasible participation. Timothy lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
The Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis is a theologian, pastor, author, and anti-poverty activist. She is the Director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice and Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
Rev. Dr. Theoharis has been organizing in poor and low-income communities for the past 30 years. Her books include: You Only Get What You’re Organized to Take: Lessons from the Movement to End Poverty (Beacon, 2025), We Pray Freedom: Liturgies and Rituals from the Freedom Church of the Poor (Broadleaf Press, 2025) and Always with Us?: What Jesus Really Said about the Poor (Eerdmans, 2017) and she has been published in the New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, Sojourners and elsewhere. Rev. Dr. Theoharis is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and teaches at Union Theological Seminary. She has been awarded the Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum, the Selma Bridge Award, the Women of Spirit Award from the Presbyterian Church (USA) and many others.
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