Box 7, Folder 9, Document 4

Box 7, Folder 9, Document 4

Vol. | e« No. 9 e June 1968

CHOW tile POI

Published by The Urban Coalition . Federal Bar Building - 1815 H St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006

Executive Committee Sets Urgent Priorities



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“We owe it to his
memory to end inaction...”



The Executive Committee of the unincorporated
Urban Coalition, meeting on April 8, prefaced its
statement of urgent legislative goals with this
tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

“The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is
no longer among us to challenge our consciences
and fo press us forward toward fulfillment of a
just society. We owe it to his memory and to our
society fo end inaction in the face of urgent
national needs.

“The leadership and organizations which work
together as The Urban Coalition mourn the loss
of Dr. King as a courageous national leader and
as a member of our Steering Committee. We
here and now renew our pledge to pursue action
af both the national and communify level appro-
priate in character and scale to the crisis con-
fronting the nation.”





Tax Increase Supported
To Finance New Programs

The Executive Committee of the unincorporated Urban
Coalition met on April 8, four days after the assassination of
Martin Luther King, Jr., and adopted a set of high-priority
legislative recommendations keyed to the national crisis,

Immediately following the Executive Committee session,
Chairman John W. Gardner, accompanied by Andrew Heis-
kell and Whitney Young, Jr., held a press conference to make
the actions public.

The Executive Committee placed the highest importance
on passage by the House of Representatives of the Civil
Rights Act of 1968, with fair housing provisions, The bill
passed the House by a vote of 229 to 195 several days
later. It had previously passed the Senate.

The proposed supplemental appropriation for the Office
of Economic Opportunity also received urgent endorsement,
but was defeated in the House.

The Committee called across-the-board cuts of Federal
expenditures “irretional by definition” and strongly opposed
them.

Expenditures should be raised

If Congress rises to its responsibilities, the Committee
said, “it will increase, not cut, expenditures for essential
programs such as jobs, housing, education, and community
services.”

To finance such a program the Committee urged the
adoption of a tax increase, “pending the accomplishment
of the reordering of priorities and the reorientation of our
resources in the light of urban needs.”

The committee reaffirmed Coalition support for a public
service employment program to create one million meaningful
jobs, and public and private housing programs to produce
one million units annually.

The newly incorporated Urban Coalition Action Council
is actively seeking fulfillment of all these legislative objectives
(see page 2).

The Report of the President’s Advisory Commission on
Civil Disorders was strongly endorsed, with the pledge that
“The Urban Coalition will give the highest priority to bringing
it to the attention of leadership at all levels of both the
public and private sectors.”




Legislative Goals Outlined at Press Conference

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Chairman John W. Gardner talks into an array of television and
radio microphones at press conference called to express urgent legis-





Action Council Is Created

To Carry Out Legislative Program

On April 8, 1968, with the approval of the Executive
Committee, two separate and distinct corporations—The
Urban Coalition and the Urban Coalition Action Council
—were created to carry out the objectives of the unin-
corporated, voluntary group previously known as the
Urban Coalition.

The new organizations will operate in completely
different areas. The Urban Coalition Action Council
will be concerned with legislative activities, and The
Urban Coalition with non-legislative programs.

The purpose of creating this new corporate arrange-
ment was to facilitate financing by making it possible to
secure tax exempt status for the Coalition under Section
501(c)(3) and for the Action Council under Section
501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. These exemp-
tions have now been secured. This means that contribu-
tions to the Coalition are tax deductible. Contributions
to the Action Council are not.

John W. Gardner will be chairman and chief exec-
utive officer of both corporations. The Steering Committee
of the former unincorporated Urban Coalition will serve
as the Steering Committee of the new Urban Coalition.
The same individuals, acting in separate and distinct
capacities, will serve as the Policy Council of the Action
Council.











lative goals. Also participating were Steering Committee Member
Whitney Young, Jr. (left) and Co-Chairman Andrew Heiskell.

Gardner Calls for Million
Public Jobs in Two Years

Chairman John W. Gardner appeared before a Senate
Labor Subcommittee recently to urge prompt approval of
a public service employment bill.

He generally endorsed S, 3063, the measure under con-
sideration, but noted that its objective of one million public
service jobs would not be reached until the third year after
enactment.

“It seems to me,” Gardner said, “that this pace should be
accelerated so that 500,000 jobs are made available the first
year and a total of one million the second year. We are in
a period of great urgency and should stretch both our fiscal
and administrative capacity to the utmost.”

He cited a recent study made for the Urban Coalition
which shows that at least 141,000 persons could be employed
“almost overnight’ in 130 cities with populations of over
100,000. Projecting the study to include smaller cities, local
governments and non-profit organizations, he added, makes
it likely that jobs could be found for 500,000 persons within
six months.

All public service jobs, Gardner emphasized, should be
meaningful and socially useful—not dead-end, make-work
projects.

He said a public service employment program should
apply to rural as well as urban areas.



ACTION NOTES...

The Urban Coalition has moved into new headquarters
in the Federal Bar Building, 1815 H Street, N. W., Washing-
ton (20006). Main offices occupy the sixth floor of the
building. The new telephone number is Area Code 202,
347-9630.

* * *

A new booklet containing the major addresses given
at the National Action Conference on Equal Housing Oppor-
tunities in Chicago in January has been published by the
Urban Coalition Action Council and is available on request.

* * *

The Steering Committee of The Urban Coalition and
the Policy Council of the Urban Coalition Action Council will
meet at separate sessions on June 10. The first meeting will
begin at 7 p.m. in the Tudor Room of the Shoreham Hotel.

ke ae

Local Coalitions have now been formed in 33 cities, and
several others have expressed active interest. The national
Coalition is placing new emphasis on assistance to the locals,
hopes 100 will be established by the end of the year.

* * *

During the period of widespread unrest following the
assassination of Dr. Martin Lufher King, President Johnson
called on the Urban Coalition to play a key role in efforts to
reduce tension. In response, Chairman Gardner wired the
officials of local coalitions asking that they bring together
the leadership cf their communities fo examine local tensions
and needs, and support the pending Civil Rights Act of 1968.

Ok Se

In recent issues, the Wall Street Journal, Business Week,
and Agenda Magazine have carried in-depth articles on the
work of the Coalition. Reprints are available from Coalition
headquarters.



Publishers Contribute Part
Of Profits From Riot Report



Bantam Books and The New York Times recently con-
tributed $10,000 from the profits from the sale of the
Bantam edition of the Report Of The National Advisory
Commission on Civil Rights to the Urban Coalition. Pre-
senting the check to Chairman John W. Gardner are
Tom Wicker (left), Washington Bureau Chief of the

_ Times, and Bantam Books President Oscar Dystel. Wicker

wrote a special introduction for the book.



In recent weeks several staff members have joined
the Urban Coalition and are now at work in the new
headquarters at 1815 H Street in Washington. They
include:

Sarah Collins Carey, an attorney, served as consul-
tant to the National Advisory Commission on Civil Dis-
orders and was associated with the Washington law firm
of Arnold and Porter. Mrs. Carey is a graduate of Rad-
cliffe College and received her law degree from George-
town University.

Margaret Carroll, a graduate of Lawrence College,
worked for the past seven years as a researcher, writer
and editor for the Congressional Quarterly News Service.

John Dean, former Regional Administrator of Office
of Economic Opportunity programs in the Southeast, is a
graduate of Howard University in Washington, D. C.

Brian M. Duff, a former Washington correspondent,

New Staff Members Join the Coalition

came to the Coalition from NASA, where he was Director
of Special Events in the Office of Public Affairs. He is a
graduate of the University of Michigan.

Herbert M. Franklin, former director of the Business
and Development Center of Urban America, Inc., and
Development Administrator of the city of Middletown,
Connecticut, is a graduate of Harvard College and
the Harvard Law School.

Peter Libassi, former special assistant to the Secretary
of HEW and director of that agency's Office for Civil
Rights. Libassi is a graduate of Colgate University and
Yale Law School.

Richard S$. Sharpe, former Peace Corps Volunteer
serving in Ethiopia, was recently Research Assistant, Cen-
ter for Studies in Education and Development at Har-
vard. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the
John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.










Gardner on local coalitions

“Nilo One Segment Can Solve the Problem Alone”

Speaking at the Convention of the United Auto
Workers recently, Chairman John W. Gardner discussed
the importance of broadly based local coalitions, and
areas of activity at the local and national levels. The
following is an excerpt from his remarks:

“The need for collaboration is most dramatically
apparent in the cities themselves. No one leadership
segment can solve the problem alone. City Hall can’t
go it alone. The business community can’t solve the city’s
problems singlehandedly. All must collaborate.

“Because of this need at the local level, our national
organization set out immediately to form local coalitions.
We now have 33 and we hope to have 100 by year’s
end. As in the case of the national, each local organiza-
tion includes representatives from a variety of leader-
ship segments in the community—the mayor, business,
labor, minority groups and religion.

“Now | still encounter leading citizens who say,
‘Why try to get all those people into the act? Why
don’t a few of us get together quietly, and try to solve
some of these problems?’

“It's a reasonable suggestion, but hopelessly old-
fashioned. It won‘t work for long in any modern city.
We won't re-establish stability in our cities until all
significant leadership elements get together, until we
bring into the same conversation all the people who
exercise significant power—or veto power—in the com-
munity.

“This includes ghetto leadership. Nothing is more
important to stability in the cities than the creation of

open, continuous and understanding communication be-
tween white and black communities. This must be a
prime task of any coalition.

“Such communication is not easy. It requires hard
work and patience and imagination on the part of every
person involved. But it is necessary. Indeed, there is
no alternative, unless we are willing to see our cities
torn apart.

We Must Work at All Levels

“At both national and local levels the Urban
Coalition will work toward the solution of our urban
problems. We will be concerned with unemployment,
housing, education, race relations and many of the other
problems that plague the cities today. We will try to
make the public aware of those problems. We will try
to bring the nation’s best talent to bear on them. We
will support constructive efforts to solve them.

“We will seek to supplement and not supplant other
efforts. We consider every organization constructively
engaged in these matters to be an ally and we will hope
to work with them and strengthen them where possible.

“The purpose of the coalition is to enable all of the
segments of our national life, represented by those vari-
ous leaders, to act together toward solutions to the urban
crisis.

“| would emphasize the importance of the coalition
principle. The woods are full of specialized organiza-
tions interested in the urban crisis. Our distinction is
that we bring together leadership elements that do not
normally collaborate in the solution of public problems.”







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