As the 50th anniversary approaches of the rebirth of public broadcasting in the United States, a new president questions its legitimacy and perhaps threatens its survival.

Signed into law by president Lyndon Johnson, the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the transition from educational to public broadcasting that included information, opinion and entertainment. This article from Nieman Center looks back half a century at the forces that animated and informed the rise of today’s public media system.