Box 16, Folder 36, Document 11

Box 16, Folder 36, Document 11

pt i ar | x
BG Cail © Pa 1967
} | : February 15, 1967
FOR RELEASE UPON DELIVERY TO THE CONGRESS

NOTICE: There should be no premature release of this Message to the
Congress, nor should its contents be paraphrased, alluded to or hinted
at in earlier stories. There is a total embargo on this Message until
delivered to the Congress, February 15, 1967, which includes any and
all references to any material in this Message.

George Christian

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THE WHITE HOUSE

MESSAGE ON EQUAL JUSTICE

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:

Almost two centuries ago, the American people declared these
truths to be self-evident:

"That all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights, that among these are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. "'

Seventy-five years later, a savage war tested the foundations of
their democratic faith. The issue of the struggle was, as Lincoln said,
whether ''we shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope on
earth."

Democracy triumphed in the field in 1865, But for the Negro
American, emancipation from slavery was but the first engagement in
along campaign. He had still to endure the assaults of discrimination
that denied him a decent home, refused his children a good education,
closed the doors of economic progress against him, turned him away
at the voting booth, the jury box, at places of public accommodation,
seated him apart on buses and trains, and sometimes even threatened
him with violence if he did not assent to these humiliations,

In 1948, President Truman ordered the defense establishment to
accord equal treatment to servicemen of every race. That same year,
the Supreme Court declared that state courts could not enforce racial
covenants in the sale of houses. The Court later struck down racial
discrimination in public transportation.

In 1954, segregated education was found to be inherently unequal
and in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment,

In 1957, the first civil rights act in eighty-two years passed the
Congress.

Three later Acts were adopted within the next decade -- in 1960,
1964, and 1965. Congress prohibited interference with the right to
vote -- to use any hotel, restaurant, or theater -- to secure a job on
the basis of merit. It barred the use of Federal funds to any agency
that practiced racial discrimination.

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Within these twenty years, the institutions of democratic government
have begun to make the ancient, self-evident truths a
reality for all Americans.

Though much of our task still lies before us, it is important to
measure the progress we have made in the past few years.

The Struggle Against Discrimination

Voting

Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the number of
Negroes registered in the five states where voter discrimination was
most severe has increased by 64 percent -- from 715,099 to 1,174,569.
The vast majority of the new voters -- about 334, 000 -- were registered
by local officials, in voluntary compliance with the Act.

The remainder -- some 125,000 -- were registered by Federal
examiners in 47 counties of the five states. Federal observers were
present in many counties during the 1966 primary and general elections
to insure that the newly registered voters were permitted to vote without
interference.

In 1960, a Negro citizen complained that for 10 years he had tried
without success to register to vote. Not a single Negro had been
registered in his county for 60 years. In 1966, he ran for a seat on
the local school board -- and won,

Today, twenty Negroes serve in Southern legislatures. Several
important local offices, such as school boards and county commissions,
now have Negro membership.

The electorate in these states has begun to change. The right
to vote -- the fundamental democratic right -- is now exercised by
men and women whose color served in years past to bar them from the
polls. After centuries of silence, their voice is being heard. It will
never again be stilled.

Schools

In the 1963-1964 school year, ten years after the landmark Brown
decision, one percent of the Negro students in the 11 Southern states

were in schools also attended by white students.

Then came the 1964 Civil Rights Act and its prohibition against the
use of Federal funds to support racial bias.

In September 1966, 12.5 percent of the Negro students in those
same states were enrolled in desegregated schools. We expect this
figure to increase significantly next fall. We will proceed with the
task of securing the rights of all our children.

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Hospitals

This year, Negroes are being admitted to hospitals which barred
them inthe past. By January, 7,130 hospitals -- more than 95 percent
of the hospitals in the nation -- had agreed to provide services without
discrimination. More than1,500 of those hospitals have had to change
past policies to make that commitment.

Getting rid of discriminatory practices has benefitted hospital
systems, as well as the people they serve.

Last year, for example, half the beds in an all-white hospital
were unoccupied, Yet Negroes in the community were sent to a completely
segregated and overcrowded hospital. The half-empty hospital changed
its policies to admit Negroes, and it now operates at full capacity. The
formerly Negro hospital will be converted into a nursing home serving
both races. The effect of the change was to provide better medical care
for the entire community.

Public Accommodations

When the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, prohibiting racial
discrimination in places of public accommodation, fears were expressed
that this sharp change in established customs would bring about serious
economic loss and perhaps even violence.

Yet from the start there has been widespread voluntary compliance
with the law. Thousands of restaurants, motels and hotels have been
opened to Americans of all races and colors. What was thought to be
laden with danger proved generally acceptable to both races.

Because all businesses of a similar type are covered, each
businessman is free, for the first time, to operate on a non-discriminatory
basis without fear of suffering a competitive disadvantage.

Now Negro families travelling through most parts of their country
do not need to suffer the inconvenience of searching for a place to rest
or eat where they will be accepted or the humiliating indignity of
being turned away.

Programs for Social Justice



The struggle against today's discrimination is only part of the
nation's commitment to equal justice for all Americans. The bigotry
of the past has its effects in broken families, men without skills,
children without learning, poor housing, and neighborhoods dominated
by the fear of crime.

Because these effects are encrusted by generations of inferior
opportunities and shattered hopes, they will not yield to laws against
discrimination alone. Indeed there is no swift medicine, no matter
how potent or massively applied, that can heal them at once. But we
know some of the things we must do if the healing process is to begin --
and we are doing them.

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Education

Head Start has given deprived children a chance to learn in later
years -- instead of being merely exposed to school. Through this
and other preschool programs, two million children have been offered
better education and health care.

More than seven million children in seventy percent of all school
districts in the United States have participated in programs under
Title I of the 1965 Education Act. These programs have a single aim:
to improve the education of disadvantaged children. The better libraries,
larger professional staffs, advanced instructional equipment and other
services they provide are investments in the future of children who need
them most.

In my Message on America's Children and Youth, I asked the Congress
to provide an additional $135 million to strengthen Head Start. With these
funds, we will launch a Head Start Follow-Through Program in the early
grades of elementary school to maintain the momentum the child has
gained and we will extend the Head Start Program downward to cover
more three-year-olds.

Extraordinary help at the start of life is necessary for all dis-
advantaged children. It is particularly necessary for the Negro child
reared in poverty and encumbered by generations of deprivation.

Jobs and Training
Thousands of job opportunities for the young have been created

by the Neighborhood Youth Corps and the Job Corps. The first, active

in both urban and rural areas, has enabled many young people to earn

enough to remain in school, and provided employment and remedial

education for dropouts.

The Job Corps -- also meant to help those between 16 and 21 --
has offered other thousands both a change of environment and the
opportunity to acquire education and job training.

The Manpower Development and Training Act gives men without
jobs or skills the chance to acquire both, by combining government
planning and resources with private industry. The Work Experience
Program offers welfare recipients a means of obtaining the experience
they need for gainful employment.

Today's strong economy, which last year put almost three million
more Americans on the payrolls, is also of tremendous benefit to needy
persons in search of dependable employment. But for the long term,
and as demand for better qualified workers grows, training and remedial
education will be of even greater importance to the disadvantaged. This
is particularly true for those who leave the farm and move to urban
areas in search of employment, without the skills an urban society
requires.

During the last three years, our training programs have provided
the means of self-sufficiency to almost a million men and women. The

value of these programs to the Negro American is especially great.

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The unemployment rate for Negroes is more than double that for
whites, About 650,000 Americans, more than 20 percent of all
unemployed, are non-white. About 213,000 of these are between 14
and 19 years of age. Job training is essential to enable them to get off
the welfare rolls and to go on the tax rolls.

Our economy is also strengthened by these programs. If Negroes
today had the same skills as other Americans, and if they were free
from discrimination in employment, our Gross National Product could
become $30 billion higher.

I will shortly submit recommendations to strengthen and expand
these training programs, I am asking the Congress for an additional
$135 million in appropriations for the Office of Economic Opportunity
for a special program to open the doors of opportunity and meaningful
employment to our most disadvantaged citizens.

I will call for the active assistance of private industry and

organized labor to provide skills and jobs to those now confined to
the welfare rolls and the slums,

The Need for Perseverance



There are those who believe this series of accomplishments
is long enough. There are those who grow weary of supporting great
social programs, impatient with the failures that attend them and
cynical about those they are intended to help. There are those who
think "equal justice" is a rhetorical phrase, intended only as an
admonition to judges, not as a guiding principle for national policy.

To them I can only say: consider the consequences if the Nation --
and Tas the President -- were to take what appears to be the easy way
out, abandon the long, hard struggle for social and economic justice
and say that enough has been done.

-- There would be little hope of strengthening the economy
of the country through the improved earning-power and
productive capacity of Negro Americans,

-- There would be little hope of avoiding massive welfare
expenditures for people denied the training and jobs
they need to become self-supporting.

-- There would be little hope of ending the chain of personal
tragedies that began with ancient bigotry and continues
to this hour.

-- There would -- above all -- be little hope of achieving
the self-respect that comes to a nation from doing what

is right.



Our task is far from over. The statistics demonstrate the
magnitude of the effort required.

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-- The life expectancy of the Negro is five years shorter
than that of his white contemporary and the infant
mortality rate for Negroes is 40 percent higher,

-- The adult white has had at least three more years of
education -- and has been educated in better schools --
than the average adult Negro.

-- The unemployment rate for nonwhites aged 21 --
even in this time of near full employment -- is double
that of whites,

~- Negroes are characteristically more densely housed
in units only 56 percent of which meet health and safety
standards,

-- The income of the average Negro family is about 40 percent
lower than that of the average white family.

The programs we have adopted inthe past few years are only a
beginning. We have made a good start.

But we must remember that it is only a start. We must realize
that civil rights are also civil opportunities, Unless these rights are
recognized as opportunities by Negro and white alike, they can achieve
nothing. We must realize that training and education prograins provide
skills and opportunities. But only where there is both the will to seek
the job and the willingness to hire the job applicant, can these programs
achieve their ultimate objectives.

The next steps are harder, but they are even more important. We
shall need years of trial and error -- years in which children can be
strengthened to grow into responsible young adults, years of better
training, better jobs, better health, and better housing -- before the
results of what we have done so far can be seen.

Perseverance, the willingness to abandon what does not work,

and the courage to keep searching for better solutions -- these are
the virtues the times require,

Civil Rights Legislation



Last year I proposed the enactment of important civil rights
legislation. I proposed that legislation because it was right and just.

The civil rights legislation of 1966 was passed by the House of
Representatives, and brought to the floor of the Senate, Most of its
features commanded a strong majority in both Houses. None of its
features was defeated on the merits.

Yet it did not become law. It could not be brought to a final vote
in the Senate.

Some observers felt that the riots which occurred in several cities
last summer prevented the passage of the bill.

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Public concern over the riots was great, as it should have been.
Lawlessness cannot be tolerated in a nation whose very existence
depends upon respect for law. It cannot be permitted because it
injures every American and tears at the very fabric of our democracy.

We want public order in America, and we shall have it. But a
decent public order cannot be achieved solely at the end of a stick, nor
by confining one race to self-perpetuating poverty.

Let us create the conditions for a public order based upon equal
justice.

The Civil Rights Act of 1967

The Act I am proposing this year is substantially the same as
last year's bill. Some revisions have been incorporated to take account
of useful suggestions and perfecting amendments made by the 89th
Congress. I believe these revisions offer a basis for common action.

I recommend the adoption of a national policy against discrimination
in housing on account of race, color, religion or national origin. I
propose the adoption of progressive steps to carry out this policy.







I recommend the clarification and strengthening of existing Federal
criminal laws against interference with Federal rights.



Irecommend requirements for the selection of juries in Federal
courts to guard against discrimination and insure that juries are
properly representative of the community.





I recommend legislation to eliminate all forms of discrimination
in the selection of state court juries.





I recommend that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 be amended to
authorize the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to issue
judicially enforceable cease~and-desist orders.





i recommend the extension, for an additional five years, of the
United States Commission on Civil Rights,





I recommend a 90 percent increase in appropriations for the
Community Relations Service.







These measures are not new. I have recommended and supported
them in the past. I urge the Congress to act favorably upon them because
justice and human dignity demand these protections for each American
citizen,

Equal Justice in Housing



For most Americans, the availability of housing depends upon one
factor -- their ability to pay.

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For too many, however, there are other crucial factors -- the
color of their skin, their religion or their national origin,

When a Negro seeks a decent home for himself and his family,
he frequently finds that the door is closed. It remains closed -- though
the Negro may be a serviceman who has fought for freedom.

The result of countless individual acts of discrimination is the
spawning of urban ghettoes, where housing is inferior, overcrowded
and too often overpriced,

Statistics tell a part of the story. Throughout the nation, almost
twice as many nonwhites as whites occupy deteriorating or dilapidated
housing. In Watts, 32.5 percent of all housing is overcrowded,
compared with 11.5 percent for the Nation as a whole,

In Harlem, more than 237,000 people live in an area consisting
of three and one-half square miles. This is a density of 105 people
per acre, Ninety percent of the buildings in Harlem are more than
30 years old, and almost half were built before the end of the nineteenth
century,

The environment of most urban ghettoes is the same: inferior
public facilities and services -- streets, lighting, parks; sanitation
and police protection; inferior schools; and isolation from job opportunities.
In every sphere of urban life the ghetto-dweller is shortchanged,

A child growing up in such an environment must overcome
tremendous man-made obstacles to become a useful citizen. The
misery we tolerate today multiplies the misery of tomorrow,

Many of our existing and proposed programs <-- though not directed
simply at relieving the problems of any particular minority group <=
will relieve conditions found in their most acute form in the urban
ghetto, These programs are necessary and they must be fully supported.

But money and assistance are not enough. Since the ratification
of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, this Nation has been
committed to accord every citizen the equal protection of its laws,
We must strengthen that commitment as it relates to discrimination
in housing -- a problem that is national in scope.

The legislation I recommend would ultimately apply to all
housing in the United States, It would go into effect by progressive
stages.

The proposed legislation would direct the Secretary of Housing
and Urban Development to carry out education and conciliation
measures to seek an end to discrimination in housing. He would call
conferences of leaders in the housing industry, consult with state and
local officials, and work with private organizations,

The prohibition against discrimination in the sale or rental of
housing would betome effective progressively over a two-year
period:

-- Immediately, to housing already covered by the

Presidential order on equal opportunities in housing.

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-- During 1968, to dwellings sold or rented by someone
other than their occupant, and to dwellings for five
or more families. Essentially, this stage would cover
large apartment houses and real estate developments.

-- In 1969, the Act would apply to all housing.

This Act would be aimed at commercial transactions, not at the
privacy of the home, It would outlaw discriminatory practices in
financing housing and in providing real estate brokers’ services, It
would prohibit "block-busting, " by which unscrupulous dealers seek
to frighten homeowners into selling quickly, out of fear that the value
of their homes will decline.

In every instance, the legislation would require the Secretary of
Housing and Urban Development to try to achieve a voluntary solution.
Only if such a settlement could not be reached would the Secretary be
authorized to hold an administrative hearing. If, after an administrative
hearing, a violation of the law were found, the Secretary would be
authorized to issue a judicially enforceable cease-and-desist order.

The Secretary would work with State and municipal fair housing
agencies that already exist. In appropriate cases he would be
authorized to rely on their enforcement of the State and city laws.

The Attorney General would be empowered to support these
enforcement efforts, when he had reason to believe that a general
pattern or practice of discrimination exists,

Last year the legislation I proposed to ban discrimination in
housing stirred great controversy. Although a majority of both
Houses in the Congress favored that legislation, it was not enacted.
Some of the problems raised by its adversaries were real; most
involved myths and misinformation. The summer riots in our cities
did as much damage to the chances of passing that legislation as the
unfounded fears of many Americans and the opposition of special
interest groups.

There should be no need for laws to require men to deal fairly
and decently with their fellowman, There should be no need to enact
a law prohibiting discrimination in housing -- just as there should
have been no need to send registrars to enforce voting rights, to
issue guidelines to require desegregation of our schools, to bring
suits in Federal courts to insure equal access to public accommoda-
tions, and to outlaw discrimination in employment.

But the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, and 1964 and the Voting
Rights Act of 1965 were necessary and they have moved this country
toward our goal of providing a decent life for each of our citizens,

Iam proposing fair housing legislation again this year because
it is decent and right. Injustice must be opposed, however difficult
or unpopular the issue.

I believe that fair housing legislation must and will be enacted
by the Congress of the United States. I was proud to be a member of
the Congresses that enacted the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960
and as President to sign into law the 1964 and 1965 Acts. I believe
the generations to come would look upon the enactment of this
legislation by the 90th Congress as one of its proudest achievements,

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I cannot urge too strongly that the Congress act promptly on this
legislation.

Today the subject of fair housing is engulfed in a cloud of
misinformation and unarticulated fear. Some believe the value of their
homes must decline if their neighborhoods are integrated. They fear
the conversion of their communities into unsightly slums, if a family
of a different color moves into a house across the street. Neither of
these events need occur. In an atmosphere of reason and justice,
they would not occur. In the scores of cities and states that have such
laws these events have not occurred.

The task of informing the minds and enlightening the consciences
of those who are subject to these fears should begin at once. Churches
can help perform this task with a unique competence -- and they should.
So should civic organizations, public officials, human relations
commissions, labor unions and private industries. It must be done.
The sooner it is done, the nearer we will come to that just America it
is our purpose to achieve,

Interference with Rights

Another basic test of equal justice is whether all men are free
to exercise rights established by the Congress and the Constitution.
A right has little meaning unless it can be freely exercised. This
applies in particular to Negro Americans who seek to vote, attend
school, and utilize public accommodations on an equal basis,

Negro children have been abused for attending previously
segregated schools. Shots have been fired into the homes of their
parents. Employers who practiced nondiscrimination have been
harrassed. Most shocking of all are the crimes which result in loss
of life. Some of the victims have been Negroes; others were whites
devoted to the cause of justice.

State and local officials are primarily responsible for preventing
and punishing acts of violence. In many cases, however, these
officials have not been able to detect or prosecute the perpetrators
of the crimes. In some, unfortunately, they have not been willing
to meet their obligations. For these reasons and because violence
has too often been used to deny Federal rights, there is need for
Federal legislation.

Present Federal statutes are inadequate in several respects.
Maximum penalties are too low for crimes which cause death or
serious injury. Only in some instances do the statutes reach misconduct
by private persons not acting in concert with public officials. Existing
laws do not spell out clearly the Federal rights which they protect.

To remedy these deficiencies, I recommend legislation to:



-- Specify the activities which are protected, including voting,
purchasing a home, holding a job, attending a school,
obtaining service in a restaurant or other place of public
accommodation.

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-- Prohibit acts or threats of violence, by private individuals
acting alone or public officials, directed against Negroes or
members of other minority groups because they are or have
been participating in those activities.

-- Authorize victims of violence to bring civil actions for
damages or injunctive relief.



The penalties prescribed are graduated, depending on the gravity
of the offense. When physical injury results, the maximum penalty is
$10,000 and ten years. When death occurs, the sentence may be
imprisonment for any term of years or for life.

Federal and State Juries

A fair jury is fundamental to our historic traditions of justice.

Fairness is most likely to result when the jury is selected from
a broad cross section of the community. The exclusion of particular
groups or classes from jury duty not only denies defendants their right to
an impartial jury. It also denies members of the excluded group the
opportunity to fulfill an important obligation of citizenship and to parti-
cipate in the processes of their government.

On many occasions, I have emphasized the importance of respect
for the law. Yet, creating respect for legal institutions becomes
virtually impossible when parts of our judicial system operate unlawfully
or give the appearance of unfairness,

Current methods of Federal court jury selection have sometimes
resulted in the exclusion of Negroes and other minority groups. Often
the cause lay in the method of selection,

I recommend legislation to:

-- Eliminate discrimination in the selection of juries in Federal
courts.

-- Insure that juries in Federal courts are uniformly drawn
from a broad cross section of the community.



To reduce to a minimum the possibility of arbitrary exclusion
of certain groups, the act will spell out in detail the selection procedures
to be followed in all Federal district courts. Names of prospective jurors
would be obtained by random selection from voter lists -- a broadly
representative source in almost all parts of the country, now that the
Voting Rights Act of 1965 is being implemented. Under the bill only
objective standards, including basic literacy requirements found in
existing law, could be used to determine the qualifications of a pro-
spective juror.

Legislation to deal with selection of State court juries is also
needed, There has been persistent, intentional discrimination in juror
selection in some localities. A recent case involved jury discrimination
in a county whose population in 1960 was more than 70 percent Negro. Of
the persons listed on the jury rolls between 1953 and 1965, less than two
percent were Negro. No Negro had ever served as a member of a jury
in that county.

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Numerous criminal convictions obtained in State courts have
been set aside on the ground that Negroes were excluded from the juries.
Such court decisions may assure justice in a particular case. They
cannot reform the jury selection systems.

The Fourteenth Amendment establishes equality before the law
and charges the Congress with enforcing that requirement. Such flagrant,
persistent abuses as are revealed in many recent jury selection cases
cannot be tolerated by a society which prides itself on the rule of law.

I recommend legislation to:



-- Prohibit discrimination on account of race, color, religion,
national origin, sex, or economic status in the selection of
State or local juries.



-- Authorize the Attorney General to sue State or local jury
officials who exclude Negroes or r members of < other minority







groups from juries.

-- Prescribe new remedies to make it easier to prove jury
discrimination,
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-- Authorize the courts to issue a variety of orders specially
tailored to eliminate the most common methods b y which
jury discrimination is practiced,

Equal Justice in Employment

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination in hiring,
promotion and working conditions, as well as discrimination in the
membership practices of labor organizations. The Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission was created to carry out the Congressional
mandate,

The Commission was directed to eliminate discriminatory

employment practices by informal methods of conciliation and persuasion.

By the end of this fiscal year, the Commission will have completed over
two thousand investigations and more than five hundred conciliation
efforts, This is hard work, but when it succeeds, case by case it opens
up new opportunities to:

-=- The minority group employees of an aircraft company, who
no longer are confined to dead-end jobs but now have training
opportunities in 40 job classifications.

-- The employees of a large ship construction firm which
has improved the job rights of over 5,000 Negroes.

Unlike most other Federal regulatory agencies, the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission was not given enforcement powers.
If efforts to conciliate or persuade are unsuccessful, the Commission
itself is powerless. For the individual discriminated against, there
remains only a time-consuming and expensive lawsuit.

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In considering the proper role of the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission, it is important to bear in mind that non-white unemployment
remains disproportionately high:

-- In 1966, the unemployment rate was 3,3 percent for white
persons, It was 7.3 percent for non-whites,

-- Non-white unemployment in 1965 was twice the rate for whites.
In 1966, the ratio rose to 2.2 to l.

-- Among youth not attending school, the unemployment rate in
1966 was 8.5 percent for whites and 20.3 percent for non-
whites,

No single factor explains the differences in the unemployment rates
of non-whites and whites. But part of the disparity is clearly attributable
to discrimination. For that reason, effective remedies against discrimi-
nation are essential.

I recommend legislation to © give the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission authority to issue orders, after a fair hearing, to require
the termination of f discriminatory employment practices.





The cease-and-desist orders of the Commission would be enforceable
in the Federal Courts of Appeal and subject to judicial review there. These
powers are similar to those of other Federal regulatory agencies,

Enforcement power would harmonize the procedures of the Com-
mission with the prevailing practice among States and cities that have
had fair employment practices agencies for many years. It would reduce
the burden on individual complainants and on the Federal courts. It wouid
enhance the orderly implementation of this important national policy.

The Commission on Civil Rights

The United States Commission on Civil Rights has, since its creation
in 1957, proved to be an exceptionally valuable agency. This bipartisan
fact-finding agency has contributed substantially to our determined effort
to assure the civil rights of all Americans. Its investigations and studies
have contributed to important changes in the laws and policies of the
Federal government, Publications of the Commission -- in the fields
of voting, housing, employment, school segregation, and equality of
opportunity in government programs -- have been helpful to other
government agencies and to private groups interested in equality of
opportunity.

The Commission has also served as a clearinghouse for information
on civil rights matters. It has provided information on Federal laws,
programs and services to assist communities and private organizations
in dealing with civil rights issues and with economic and social problems
affecting race relations,

Under existing law, the term of the Commission expires on
January 31, 1968, But much more remains to be done,

I recommend that the life of the Commission be extended for an
additional five years, ~ i —







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Community Relations Service



The Civil Rights Act of 1964 recognized the importance of pro-
viding bridges of understanding for communities across the land
struggling with problems of equal justice and discrimination. Last
year, I recommended, and you inthe Congress approved, the transfer
of the Community Relations Service to the Department of Justice to make
it a more effective instrument of national policy.

This year, I recommend that the funds for the work of the Com-
munity Relations Service be increased by 90 percent -- from $1.4
million to $2.7 million,





In city after city and county after county, the men of the Community
Relations Service have worked, quietly and effectively, behind the scenes,
to conciliate disputes before they flared up in the courtrooms or on the
streets,

I deeply believe that, under our democratic system, the work of
conciliation can be brought to bear increasingly to remove many of the
injustices, intentional and unintentional, which derive from prejudice.
It is in this spirit and with this conviction that I request a substantial
increase in the funds appropriated to the Community Relations Service,

Equal Justice

We adopted a Constitution ''to form a more perfect union, establish
justice, insure the domestic tranquility,'' and 'provide for the common
defense,''!

In our wars Americans, Negro and white, have fought side by side
to defend freedom. Negro soldiers -- like white soldiers -- have won
every medal for bravery our country bestows. The bullets of our
enemies do not discriminate between Negro Marines and white Marines,
They kill and maim whomever they strike.

The American Negro has waited long for first-class citizenship --
for his right for equal justice, But he has long accepted the full
responsibilities of citizenship.

if there were any doubt, one need only look to the servicemen who
man our defenses, In Vietnam, 10.2 percent of our soldiers are American
Negroes bearing equal responsibilities in the fight for freedom -- but at
home, 11 percent of our people are American Negroes struggling for
equal opportunities.

The bullets at the battlefront do not discriminate -- but the landlords
at home do. The pack of the Negro soldier is as heavy as the white
soldier's -- but the burden his family at home bears is far heavier.

In war, the Negro Ame~vican has given this nation his best -- but this
nation has not given him equal justice.

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It is time that the Negro be given equal justice. In America, the
rights of citizenship are conferred by birth -- not by death in battle.

It is our duty -- as well as our privilege -- to stand before the
world as a nation dedicated to equal justice. There may be doubts about
some policies or programs, but there can be no doubt about the rights
of each man to stand on equal ground before his government and with
his fellow man,

On June 4, 1965, at Howard University, I spoke about the challenge
confronting this Nation -- ''to fulfill these rights.'' What I said then has
even greater importance and meaning for every American today:

"Freedom is the right te share fully and equally in American
society -- to vote, to hold a job, to enter a public place, to
goto school, It is the right to be treated in every part of our
national life as a person equal in dignity and promise to all
others.

"But freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars
of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you
want, do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.

"You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled
by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line
of a race and then say, 'You are free to compete with all the
others, ‘and still justly believe that you have been completely
fair.

"Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity.
All of our citizens must have the ability to walk through those
gates.

"This is the next and more profound stage of the battle for
civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity --

not just legal equity but human ability -- not just equality

as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result.

''For the task is to give 20 million Negroes the same chance
as every other American to learn and grow, to work and

share in society, to develop their abilities -- physical, mental
and spiritual, and to pursue their individual happiness,"

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"There is no single easy answer to all of these problems.

"Jobs are part of the answer. They bring the income which
permits a man to provide for his family.

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