Sargent Shriver, the director of President Johnson’s War on Poverty, launched Project Head Start with assistance from First Lady Lady Bird Johnson in 1965. An eight-week summer program, Project Head Start promotes school readiness and provides comprehensive health, nutritional, and social care to children from low-income families. Shortly after the program began, a doctor diagnosed five-year-old Pancho Mansera of Nipomo, California, with a thyroid problem and suggested that he attend a school readiness program. The Office of Economic Opportunity produced a short film documenting Pancho’s experience with Project Head Start. Pancho and his mother met President Johnson at the screening of the documentary in 1967.
