Instituted by President Johnson in 1966 as an urban campaign within the War on Poverty, the Model-Cities program sought to coordinate fed-eral, state and local authorities in social reform of slum-housing, poverty disease, dependency and crime.

Model Ccities soon faced challenges to its scale within cities and about how many cities could claim its scarce funds. By 1974 a more anti-urban Nixon presidency could point to its lack of accomplishments and shift funding to block grants. Nonetheless, individual programs and community leaders arising from them attest to the ideal, if not the realization of this program.