100 bai dien van nuoc Mi

The political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that if you and I are going to live in a Black community -- and that’s where we’re going to live, 'cause as soon as you move int[r]

100 greatest speeches of American Barbara Jordan: 1976 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address "Who, then, will speak for the common good?"

(delivered 12 July 1976, New York, NY)

Thank you ladies and gentlemen for a very warm reception

It was one hundred and forty-four years ago that members of the Democratic Party first met in convention to select a Presidential candidate Since that time, Democrats have continued to convene once every four years and draft a party platform and nominate a Presidential candidate And our meeting this week is a continuation of that tradition But there is something different about tonight There is something special about tonight What is different? What is special?

I, Barbara Jordan, am a keynote speaker

When A lot of years passed since 1832, and during that time it would have been most unusual for any national political party to ask a Barbara Jordan to deliver a keynote address But tonight, here I am And I feel I feel that notwithstanding the past that my presence here is one additional bit of evidence that the American Dream need not forever be deferred

Now Now that I have this grand distinction, what in the world am I supposed to say? I could easily spend this time praising the accomplishments of this party and attacking the Republicans but I don't choose to that I could list the many problems which Americans have I could list the problems which cause people to feel cynical, angry, frustrated: problems which include lack of integrity in government; the feeling that the individual no longer counts; the reality of material and spiritual poverty; the feeling that the grand American experiment is failing or has failed I could recite these problems, and then I could sit down and offer no solutions But I don't choose to that either The citizens of America expect more They deserve and they want more than a recital of problems We are a people in a quandary about the present We are a people in search of our future We are a people in search of a national community We are a people trying not only to solve the problems of the present, unemployment, inflation, but we are attempting on a larger scale to fulfill the promise of America We are attempting to fulfill our national purpose, to create and sustain a society in which all of us are equal

Throughout Throughout our history, when people have looked for new ways to solve their

problems and to uphold the principles of this nation, many times they have turned to political parties They have often turned to the Democratic Party What is it? What is it about the Democratic Party that makes it the instrument the people use when they search for ways to shape their future? Well I believe the answer to that question lies in our concept of governing Our concept of governing is derived from our view of people It is a concept deeply rooted in a set of beliefs firmly etched in the national conscience of all of us

I think it no accident that most of those immigrating to America in the 19th century identified with the Democratic Party We are a heterogeneous party made up of Americans of diverse backgrounds We believe that the people are the source of all governmental power; that the authority of the people is to be extended, not restricted

This This can be accomplished only by providing each citizen with every opportunity to participate in the management of the government They must have that, we believe We believe that the

government which represents the authority of all the people, not just one interest group, but all the people, has an obligation to actively underscore actively seek to remove those obstacles which would block individual achievement obstacles emanating from race, sex, economic condition The government must remove them, seek to remove them We

We are a party We are a party of innovation We not reject our traditions, but we are willing to adapt to changing circumstances, when change we must We are willing to suffer the discomfort of change in order to achieve a better future We have a positive vision of the future founded on the belief that the gap between the promise and reality of America can one day be finally closed We believe that

This, my friends is the bedrock of our concept of governing This is a part of the reason why Americans have turned to the Democratic Party These are the foundations upon which a national community can be built Let all understand that these guiding principles cannot be discarded for short-term political gains They represent what this country is all about They are indigenous to the American idea And these are principles which are not negotiable

In other times In other times, I could stand here and give this kind of exposition on the beliefs of the Democratic Party and that would be enough But today that is not enough People want more That is not sufficient reason for the majority of the people of this country to decide to vote

Democratic We have made mistakes We realize that We admit our mistakes In our haste to all things for all people, we did not foresee the full consequences of our actions And when the people raised their voices, we didn't hear But our deafness was only a temporary condition, and not an irreversible condition

Even as I stand here and admit that we have made mistakes, I still believe that as the people of America sit in judgment on each party, they will recognize that our mistakes were mistakes of the heart They'll recognize that

And now now we must look to the future Let us heed the voice of the people and recognize their common sense If we not, we not only blaspheme our political heritage, we ignore the common ties that bind all Americans Many fear the future Many are distrustful of their leaders, and believe that their voices are never heard Many seek only to satisfy their private work wants; to satisfy their private interests But this is the great danger America faces that we will cease to be one nation and become instead a collection of interest groups: city against suburb, region against region, individual against individual; each seeking to satisfy private wants If that happens, who then will speak for America? Who then will speak for the common good?

As a first step As a first step, we must restore our belief in ourselves We are a generous people, so why can't we be generous with each other? We need to take to heart the words spoken by Thomas Jefferson:

Let us restore the social intercourse "Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and that affection without which liberty and even life are but dreary things."

A nation is formed by the willingness of each of us to share in the responsibility for upholding the common good A government is invigorated when each one of us is willing to participate in shaping the future of this nation In this election year, we must define the "common good" and begin again to shape a common future Let each person his or her part If one citizen is unwilling to participate, all of us are going to suffer For the American idea, though it is shared by all of us, is realized in each one of us

And now, what are those of us who are elected public officials supposed to do? We call ourselves "public servants" but I'll tell you this: We as public servants must set an example for the rest of the nation It is hypocritical for the public official to admonish and exhort the people to uphold the common good if we are derelict in upholding the common good More is required More is required of public officials than slogans and handshakes and press releases More is required We must hold ourselves strictly accountable We must provide the people with a vision of the future

If we promise as public officials, we must deliver If If we as public officials propose, we must produce If we say to the American people, "It is time for you to be sacrificial" sacrifice If the public official says that, we [public officials] must be the first to give We must be And again, if we make mistakes, we must be willing to admit them We have to that What we have to is strike a balance between the idea that government should everything and the idea, the belief, that

government ought to nothing Strike a balance

Let there be no illusions about the difficulty of forming this kind of a national community It's tough, difficult, not easy But a spirit of harmony will survive in America only if each of us remembers that we share a common destiny; if each of us remembers, when self-interest and bitterness seem to prevail, that we share a common destiny

I have confidence that we can form this kind of national community I have confidence that the Democratic Party can lead the way I have that confidence

We cannot improve on the system of government handed down to us by the founders of the Republic There is no way to improve upon that But what we can is to find new ways to implement that system and realize our destiny

Now I began this speech by commenting to you on the uniqueness of a Barbara Jordan making a keynote address Well I am going to close my speech by quoting a Republican President and I ask you that as you listen to these words of Abraham Lincoln, relate them to the concept of a national community in which every last one of us participates:

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master." This This "This expresses my idea of Democracy Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no Democracy."

Ronald Reagan: The Space Shuttle "Challenger" Tragedy Address

"We'll continue our quest in space There will be more shuttle flights more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space."

(delivered 28 January 1986)

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd planned to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the Union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans Today is a day for mourning and

remembering Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country This is truly a national loss

Nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three astronauts in a terrible accident on the ground But we've never lost an astronaut in flight We've never had a tragedy like this And perhaps we've forgotten the courage it took for the crew of the shuttle But they, the Challenger Seven, were aware of the dangers, but overcame them and did their jobs brilliantly We mourn seven heroes: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe We mourn their loss as a nation together

For the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full impact of this tragedy But we feel the loss, and we're thinking about you so very much Your loved ones were daring and brave, and they had that special grace, that special spirit that says, "Give me a challenge, and I'll meet it with joy." They had a hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths They wished to serve, and they did They served all of us

We've grown used to wonders in this century It's hard to dazzle us But for twenty-five years the United States space program has been doing just that We've grown used to the idea of space, and, perhaps we forget that we've only just begun We're still pioneers They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers

And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's take-off I know it's hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them

I've always had great faith in and respect for our space program And what happened today does nothing to diminish it We don't hide our space program We don't keep secrets and cover things up We it all up front and in public That's the way freedom is, and we wouldn't change it for a minute We'll continue our quest in space There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and, yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue

I want to add that I wish I could talk to every man and woman who works for NASA, or who worked on this mission and tell them: "Your dedication and professionalism have moved and impressed us for decades And we know of your anguish We share it."

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God." Thank you

Richard M Nixon: "Checkers"

" the kids, like all kids, love the dog, and regardless of what they say about it, we're gonna keep it."

(delivered 23 September 1952)

My Fellow Americans,

I come before you tonight as a candidate for the Vice Presidency and as a man whose honesty and integrity has been questioned

Now, the usual political thing to when charges are made against you is to either ignore them or to deny them without giving details I believe we've had enough of that in the United States, particularly with the present Administration in Washington, D.C To me the office of the Vice Presidency of the United States is a great office, and I feel that the people have got to have confidence in the integrity of the men who run for that office and who might obtain it

I have a theory, too, that the best and only answer to a smear or to an honest misunderstanding of the facts is to tell the truth And that's why I'm here tonight I want to tell you my side of the case I'm sure that you have read the charge, and you've heard it, that I, Senator Nixon, took 18,000 dollars from a group of my supporters

Now, was that wrong? And let me say that it was wrong I'm saying, incidentally, that it was wrong, not just illegal, because it isn't a question of whether it was legal or illegal, that isn't enough The question is, was it morally wrong? I say that it was morally wrong if any of that 18,000 dollars went to Senator Nixon, for my personal use I say that it was morally wrong if it was secretly given and secretly handled And I say that it was morally wrong if any of the contributors got special favors for the contributions that they made

And now to answer those questions let me say this: Not one cent of the 18,000 dollars or any other money of that type ever went to me for my personal use Every penny of it was used to pay for political expenses that I did not think should be charged to the taxpayers of the United States It was not a secret fund As a matter of fact, when I was on "Meet the Press" some of you may have seen it last Sunday Peter Edson came up to me after the program, and he said, "Dick, what about this "fund" we hear about?" And I said, "Well, there's no secret about it Go out and see Dana Smith who was the administrator of the fund." And I gave him [Edson] his [Smith's] address And I said you will find that the purpose of the fund simply was to defray political expenses that I did not feel should be charged to the Government

did you have to have it?" Let me tell you in just a word how a Senate office operates First of all, a Senator gets 15,000 dollars a year in salary He gets enough money to pay for one trip a year a round trip, that is for himself and his family between his home and Washington, D.C And then he gets an allowance to handle the people that work in his office to handle his mail And the allowance for my State of California is enough to hire 13 people And let me say, incidentally, that that

allowance is not paid to the Senator It's paid directly to the individuals that the Senator puts on his pay roll But all of these people and all of these allowances are for strictly official business; business, for example, when a constituent writes in and wants you to go down to the Veteran's Administration and get some information about his GI policy items of that type, for example But there are other expenses which are not covered by the Government And I think I can best discuss those expenses by asking you some questions

Do you think that when I or any other Senator makes a political speech, has it printed, should charge the printing of that speech and the mailing of that speech to the taxpayers? Do you think, for

example, when I or any other Senator makes a trip to his home State to make a purely political speech that the cost of that trip should be charged to the taxpayers? Do you think when a Senator makes political broadcasts or political television broadcasts, radio or television, that the expense of those broadcasts should be charged to the taxpayers? Well I know what your answer is It's the same answer that audiences give me whenever I discuss this particular problem: The answer is no The taxpayers shouldn't be required to finance items which are not official business but which are primarily political business

Well, then the question arises, you say, "Well, how you pay for these and how can you it legally?" And there are several ways that it can be done, incidentally, and that it is done legally in the United States Senate and in the Congress The first way is to be a rich man I don't happen to be a rich man, so I couldn't use that one Another way that is used is to put your wife on the pay roll Let me say, incidentally, that my opponent, my opposite number for the Vice Presidency on the Democratic ticket, does have his wife on the pay roll and has had it her on his pay roll for the ten years for the past ten years Now just let me say this: That's his business, and I'm not critical of him for doing that You will have to pass judgment on that particular point

But I have never done that for this reason: I have found that there are so many deserving

stenographers and secretaries in Washington that needed the work that I just didn't feel it was right to put my wife on the pay roll My wife's sitting over here She's a wonderful stenographer She used to teach stenography and she used to teach shorthand in high school That was when I met her And I can tell you folks that she's worked many hours at night and many hours on Saturdays and Sundays in my office, and she's done a fine job, and I am proud to say tonight that in the six years I've been in the House and the Senate of the United States, Pat Nixon has never been on the Government pay roll What are other ways that these finances can be taken care of? Some who are lawyers, and I happen to be a lawyer, continue to practice law, but I haven't been able to that I'm so far away from

California that I've been so busy with my senatorial work that I have not engaged in any legal practice And, also, as far as law practice is concerned, it seemed to me that the relationship between an attorney and the client was so personal that you couldn't possibly represent a man as an attorney and then have an unbiased view when he presented his case to you in the event that he had one before Government

And so I felt that the best way to handle these necessary political expenses of getting my message to the American people and the speeches I made the speeches that I had printed for the most part concerned this one message of exposing this Administration, the Communism in it, the corruption in it the only way that I could that was to accept the aid which people in my home State of

And let me say I'm proud of the fact that not one of them has ever asked me for a special favor I'm proud of the fact that not one of them has ever asked me to vote on a bill other than of my own conscience would dictate And I am proud of the fact that the taxpayers, by subterfuge or otherwise, have never paid one dime for expenses which I thought were political and shouldn't be charged to the taxpayers

Let me say, incidentally, that some of you may say, "Well, that's all right, Senator, that's your explanation, but have you got any proof?" And I'd like to tell you this evening that just an hour ago we received an independent audit of this entire fund I suggested to Governor Sherman Adams, who is the Chief of Staff of the Dwight Eisenhower campaign, that an independent audit and legal report be obtained, and I have that audit here in my hands It's an audit made by the Price Waterhouse & Company firm, and the legal opinion by Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher, lawyers in Los Angeles, the biggest law firm, and incidentally, one of the best ones in Los Angeles

I am proud to be able to report to you tonight that this audit and this legal opinion is being forwarded to General Eisenhower And I'd like to read to you the opinion that was prepared by Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher, and based on all the pertinent laws and statutes, together with the audit report prepared by the certified public accountants Quote:

It is our conclusion that Senator Nixon did not obtain any financial gain from the collection and disbursement of the fund by Dana Smith; that Senator Nixon did not violate any federal or state law by reason of the operation of the fund; and that neither the portion of the fund paid by Dana Smith directly to third persons, nor the portion paid to Senator Nixon, to reimburse him for designated office expenses, constituted income to the Senator which was either reportable or taxable as income under applicable tax laws

(signed)

Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher, by Elmo H Conley

Now that, my friends, is not Nixon speaking, but that's an independent audit which was requested, because I want the American people to know all the facts, and I am not afraid of having independent people go in and check the facts, and that is exactly what they did But then I realized that there are still some who may say, and rightfully so and let me say that I recognize that some will continue to smear regardless of what the truth may be but that there has been, understandably, some honest misunderstanding on this matter, and there are some that will say, "Well, maybe you were able, Senator, to fake this thing How can we believe what you say? After all, is there a possibility that maybe you got some sums in cash? Is there a possibility that you may have feathered your own nest?" And so now, what I am going to and incidentally this is unprecedented in the history of

American politics I am going at this time to give to this television and radio audio audience, a complete financial history, everything I've earned, everything I've spent, everything I own And I want you to know the facts

Then, in 1942, I went into the service Let me say that my service record was not a particularly unusual one I went to the South Pacific I guess I'm entitled to a couple of battle stars I got a couple of letters of commendation But I was just there when the bombs were falling And then I returned returned to the United States, and in 1946, I ran for the Congress When we came out of the war Pat and I Pat during the war had worked as a stenographer, and in a bank, and as an economist for a Government agency and when we came out, the total of our savings, from both my law practice, her teaching and all the time that I was in the war, the total for that entire period was just a little less than 10,000 dollars Every cent of that, incidentally, was in Government bonds Well that's where we start, when I go into politics

Now, what have I earned since I went into politics? Well, here it is I've jotted it down Let me read the notes First of all, I've had my salary as a Congressman and as a Senator Second, I have received a total in this past six years of 1600 dollars from estates which were in my law firm at the time that I severed my connection with it And, incidentally, as I said before, I have not engaged in any legal practice and have not accepted any fees from business that came into the firm after I went into politics I have made an average of approximately 1500 dollars a year from nonpolitical speaking engagements and lectures

And then, fortunately, we've inherited a little money Pat sold her interest in her father's estate for 3,000 dollars, and I inherited 1500 dollars from my grandfather We lived rather modestly For four years we lived in an apartment in Parkfairfax, in Alexandria, Virginia The rent was 80 dollars a month And we saved for the time that we could buy a house Now, that was what we took in What did we with this money? What we have today to show for it? This will surprise you because it is so little, I suppose, as standards generally go of people in public life

First of all, we've got a house in Washington, which cost 41,000 dollars and on which we owe 20,000 dollars We have a house in Whittier, California which cost 13,000 dollars and on which we owe 3000 dollars My folks are living there at the present time I have just 4000 dollars in life insurance, plus my GI policy which I've never been able to convert, and which will run out in two years I have no life insurance whatever on Pat I have no life insurance on our two youngsters, Tricia and Julie I own a 1950 Oldsmobile car We have our furniture We have no stocks and bonds of any type We have no interest of any kind, direct or indirect, in any business Now, that's what we have What we owe?

Well in addition to the mortgage, the 20,000 dollar mortgage on the house in Washington, the 10,000 dollar one on the house in Whittier, I owe 4500 dollars to the Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C., with interest and 1/2 percent I owe 3500 dollars to my parents, and the interest on that loan, which I pay regularly, because it's the part of the savings they made through the years they were working so hard I pay regularly percent interest And then I have a 500 dollar loan, which I have on my life insurance

Well, that's about it That's what we have And that's what we owe It isn't very much But Pat and I have the satisfaction that every dime that we've got is honestly ours I should say this, that Pat doesn't have a mink coat But she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat, and I always tell her she'd look good in anything

It isn't easy to come before a nationwide audience and bare your life, as I've done But I want to say some things before I conclude that I think most of you will agree on Mr Mitchell, the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, made this statement that if a man couldn't afford to be in the United States Senate, he shouldn't run for the Senate And I just want to make my position clear I don't agree with Mr Mitchell when he says that only a rich man should serve his Government in the United States Senate or in the Congress I don't believe that represents the thinking of the Democratic Party, and I know that it doesn't represent the thinking of the Republican Party

I believe that it's fine that a man like Governor Stevenson, who inherited a fortune from his father, can run for President But I also feel that it's essential in this country of ours that a man of modest means can also run for President, because, you know, remember Abraham Lincoln, you remember what he said: "God must have loved the common people he made so many of them."

And now I'm going to suggest some courses of conduct First of all, you have read in the papers about other funds, now Mr Stevenson apparently had a couple one of them in which a group of business people paid and helped to supplement the salaries of State employees Here is where the money went directly into their pockets, and I think that what Mr Stevenson should should be to come before the American people, as I have, give the names of the people that contributed to that fund, give the names of the people who put this money into their pockets at the same time that they were receiving money from their State government and see what favors, if any, they gave out for that

I don't condemn Mr Stevenson for what he did, but until the facts are in there is a doubt that will be raised And as far as Mr Sparkman is concerned, I would suggest the same thing He's had his wife on the payroll I don't condemn him for that, but I think that he should come before the American people and indicate what outside sources of income he has had I would suggest that under the circumstances both Mr Sparkman and Mr Stevenson should come before the American people, as I have, and make a complete financial statement as to their financial history, and if they don't it will be an admission that they have something to hide And I think you will agree with me because, folks, remember, a man that's to be President of the United States, a man that's to be Vice President of the United States, must have the confidence of all the people And that's why I'm doing what I'm doing And that's why I suggest that Mr Stevenson and Mr Sparkman, since they are under attack, should what they're doing

Now let me say this: I know that this is not the last of the smears In spite of my explanation tonight, other smears will be made Others have been made in the past And the purpose of the smears, I know, is this: to silence me; to make me let up Well, they just don't know who they're dealing with I'm going to tell you this: I remember in the dark days of the Hiss case some of the same columnists, some of the same radio commentators who are attacking me now and misrepresenting my position, were violently opposing me at the time I was after Alger Hiss But I continued to fight because I knew I was right, and I can say to this great television and radio audience that I have no apologies to the American people for my part in putting Alger Hiss where he is today And as far as this is

concerned, I intend to continue to fight

Why I feel so deeply? Why I feel that in spite of the smears, the misunderstanding, the necessity for a man to come up here and bare his soul as I have why is it necessary for me to continue this fight? And I want to tell you why Because, you see, I love my country And I think my country is in danger And I think the only man that can save America at this time is the man that's running for President, on my ticket Dwight Eisenhower You say, "Why I think it is in danger?" And I say, look at the record Seven years of the Truman-Acheson Administration, and what's

caused that war and which resulted in those losses should be kicked out of the State Department just as fast as we get them out of there

And let me say that I know Mr Stevenson won't that because he defends the Truman policy, and I know that Dwight Eisenhower will that, and that he will give America the leadership that it needs Take the problem of corruption You've read about the mess in Washington Mr Stevenson can't clean it up because he was picked by the man, Truman, under whose Administration the mess was made You wouldn't trust the man who made the mess to clean it up That's Truman And by the same token you can't trust the man who was picked by the man that made the mess to clean it up and that's Stevenson

And so I say, Eisenhower, who owed nothing to Truman, nothing to the big city bosses he is the man that can clean up the mess in Washington Take Communism I say that as far as that subject is concerned the danger is great to America In the Hiss case they got the secrets which enabled them to break the American secret State Department code They got secrets in the atomic bomb case which enabled them to get the secret of the atomic bomb five years before they would have gotten it by their own devices And I say that any man who called the Alger Hiss case a red herring isn't fit to be President of the United States I say that a man who, like Mr Stevenson, has pooh-poohed and ridiculed the Communist threat in the United States he said that they are phantoms among ourselves He has accused us that have attempted to expose the Communists, of looking for

Communists in the Bureau of Fisheries and Wildlife I say that a man who says that isn't qualified to be President of the United States And I say that the only man who can lead us in this fight to rid the Government of both those who are Communists and those who have corrupted this Government is Eisenhower, because Eisenhower, you can be sure, recognizes the problem, and he knows how to deal with it

Now let me that finally, this evening, I want to read to you, just briefly, excerpts from a letter which I received, a letter which after all this is over no one can take away from us It reads as follows:

Dear Senator Nixon,

Since I am only 19 years of age, I can't vote in this presidential election, but believe me if I could you and General Eisenhower would certainly get my vote My husband is in the Fleet Marines in Korea He' a corpsman on the front lines and we have a two month old son he's never seen And I feel confident that with great Americans like you and General Eisenhower in the White House, lonely Americans like myself will be united with their loved ones now in Korea I only pray to God that you won't be too late Enclosed is a small check to help you in your campaign Living on $85 a month, it is all I can afford at present, but let me know what else I can

Folks, it's a check for 10 dollars, and it's one that I will never cash And just let me say this: We hear a lot about prosperity these days, but I say why can't we have prosperity built on peace, rather than prosperity built on war? Why can't we have prosperity and an honest Government in Washington, D.C., at the same time? Believe me, we can And Eisenhower is the man that can lead this crusade to bring us that kind of prosperity

And now, finally, I know that you wonder whether or not I am going to stay on the Republican ticket or resign Let me say this: I don't believe that I ought to quit, because I am not a quitter And,

incidentally, Pat's not a quitter After all, her name was Patricia Ryan and she was born on St

But just let me say this last word: Regardless of what happens, I'm going to continue this fight I'm going to campaign up and down in America until we drive the crooks and the Communists and those that defend them out of Washington And remember folks, Eisenhower is a great man, believe me He's a great man And a vote for Eisenhower is a vote for what's good for America

Malcolm X: "The Ballot or the Bullet"

(delivered 12 April, 1964 in Detroit, MI)

Mr Moderator, Reverend Cleage, Brother Lomax, brothers and sisters, and friends and I see some enemies In fact, I think we’d be fooling ourselves if we had an audience this large and didn’t realize that there were some enemies present

This afternoon we want to talk about "The ballot or the bullet." The ballot or the bullet explains itself But before we get into it, since this is the year of the ballot or the bullet, I would like to clarify some things that refer to me personally concerning my own personal position

I'm still a Muslim That is, my religion is still Islam My religion is still Islam I still credit Mr Mohammed for what I know and what I am He's the one who opened my eyes At present, I'm the Minister of the newly founded Muslim Mosque, Incorporated, which has its offices in the Teresa Hotel, right in the heart of Harlem that’s the black belt in New York city And when we realize that Adam Clayton Powell is a Christian minister, he’s the he heads Abyssinian Baptist Church, but at the same time, he’s more famous for his political struggling

And Dr King is a Christian Minister, in Atlanta from Atlanta Georgia or in Atlanta, Georgia, but he’s become more famous for being involved in the civil rights struggle There’s another in New York, Reverend Galamison I don’t know if you’ve heard of him out here he’s a Christian Minister from Brooklyn, but has become famous for his fight against a segregated school system in Brooklyn Reverend Clee, right here, is a Christian Minister, here in Detroit He’s the head of the “Freedom Now Party.” All of these are Christian Ministers All of these are Christian Ministers, but they don’t come to us as Christian Ministers They come to us as fighters in some other category I’m a Muslim minister The same as they are Christian Ministers, I’m a Muslim minister And I don’t believe in fighting today in any one front, but on all fronts In fact, I’m a "Black Nationalist Freedom Fighter." Islam is my religion, but I believe my religion is my personal business It governs my personal life, my personal morals And my religious philosophy is personal between me and the God in whom I believe; just as the religious philosophy of these others is between them and the God in whom they believe

And this is best this way Were we to come out here discussing religion, we’d have too many

differences from the outstart and we could never get together So today, though Islam is my religious philosophy, my political, economic, and social philosophy is Black Nationalism You and I As I say, if we bring up religion we’ll have differences; we’ll have arguments; and we’ll never be able to get together But if we keep our religion at home, keep our religion in the closet, keep our religion between ourselves and our God, but when we come out here, we have a fight that’s common to all of us against a [sic] enemy who is common to all of us

me to support him so he can use him to lead us astray those days are long gone too

The political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that if you and I are going to live in a Black community and that’s where we’re going to live, 'cause as soon as you move into one of their soon as you move out of the Black community into their community, it’s mixed for a period of time, but they’re gone and you’re right there all by yourself again We must We must understand the politics of our community and we must know what politics is supposed to produce We must know what part politics play in our lives And until we become politically mature we will always be mislead, lead astray, or deceived or maneuvered into supporting someone politically who doesn’t have the good of our community at heart So the political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we will have to carry on a program, a political program, of re-education to open our people's eyes, make us become more politically conscious, politically mature, and then we will whenever we get ready to cast our ballot, that ballot will be will be cast for a man of the community who has the good of the community of heart

The economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we should own and operate and control the economy of our community You would never You can’t open up a black store in a white community White men won’t even patronize you And he’s not wrong He’s got sense enough to look out for himself You the one who don’t have sense enough to look out for yourself The white man The white man is too intelligent to let someone else come and gain control of the economy of his community But you will let anybody come in and take control of the economy of your

community, control the housing, control the education, control the jobs, control the businesses, under the pretext that you want to integrate No, you're ought of your mind

The political The economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we have to become involved in a program of reeducation to educate our people into the importance of knowing that when you spend your dollar out of the community in which you live, the community in which you spend your money becomes richer and richer; the community out which you take your money becomes poorer and poorer And because these negroes, who have been mislead, misguided, are breaking their necks to take their money and spend it with The Man, The Man is becoming richer and richer, and you’re becoming poorer and poorer And then what happens? The community in which you live becomes a slum It becomes a ghetto The conditions become run down And then you have the audacity to to complain about poor housing in a run-down community Why you run it down yourself when you take your dollar out

And you and I are in a double-track, because not only we lose by taking our money someplace else and spending it, when we try and spend it in our own community we’re trapped because we haven’t had sense enough to set up stores and control the businesses of our community The man who’s controlling the stores in our community is a man who doesn’t look like we He’s a man who doesn’t even live in the community So you and I, even when we try and spend our money in the block where we live or the area where we live, we’re spending it with a man who, when the sun goes down, takes that basket full of money in another part of the town

So we’re trapped, trapped, double-trapped, triple-trapped Anywhere we go we find that we’re

So our people not only have to be reeducated to the importance of supporting black business, but the black man himself has to be made aware of the importance of going into business And once you and I go into business, we own and operate at least the businesses in our community What we will be doing is developing a situation wherein we will actually be able to create employment for the people in the community And once you can create some some employment in the community where you live it will eliminate the necessity of you and me having to act ignorantly and disgracefully,

boycotting and picketing some practice some place else trying to beg him for a job

Anytime you have to rely upon your enemy for a job, you’re in bad shape When you have He is your enemy Let me tell you, you wouldn’t be in this country if some enemy hadn’t kidnapped you and brought you here On the other hand, some of you think you came here on the Mayflower

So as you can see brothers and sisters, today this afternoon, it's not our intention to discuss religion We’re going to forget religion If we bring up religion, we’ll be in an argument, and the best way to keep away from arguments and differences, as I said earlier, put your religion at home in the closet Keep it between you and your God Because if it hasn’t done anything more for you than it has, you need to forget it anyway

Whether you are Whether you are a Christian, or a Muslim, or a Nationalist, we all have the same problem They don’t hang you because you’re a Baptist; they hang you 'cause you’re black They don’t attack me because I’m a Muslim; they attack me 'cause I’m black They attack all of us for the same reason; all of us catch hell from the same enemy We’re all in the same bag, in the same boat We suffer political oppression, economic exploitation, and social degradation all of them from the same enemy The government has failed us; you can’t deny that Anytime you live in the twentieth century, 1964, and you walkin' around here singing “We Shall Overcome,” the government has failed us

This is part of what’s wrong with you you too much singing Today it’s time to stop singing and start swinging You can’t sing up on freedom, but you can swing up on some freedom Cassius Clay can sing, but singing didn’t help him to become the heavyweight champion of the world; swinging helped him become the heavyweight champion This government has failed us; the government itself has failed us, and the white liberals who have been posing as our friends have failed us

And once we see that all these other sources to which we’ve turned have failed, we stop turning to them and turn to ourselves We need a self help program, a it a-it-yourself philosophy, a do-it-right-now philosophy, a it’s-already-too-late philosophy This is what you and I need to get with, and the only time the only way we're going to solve our problem is with a self-help program Before we can get a self-help program started we have to have a self-help philosophy

Black Nationalism is a self-help philosophy What's so good about it? You can stay right in the church where you are and still take Black Nationalism as your philosophy You can stay in any kind of civic organization that you belong to and still take black nationalism as your philosophy You can be an atheist and still take black nationalism as your philosophy This is a philosophy that eliminates the necessity for division and argument 'Cause if you're black you should be thinking black, and if you are black and you not thinking black at this late date, well I’m sorry for you

it’s time today for us to start doing some standing, and some fighting to back that up

When we look like at other parts of this earth upon which we live, we find that black, brown, red, and yellow people in Africa and Asia are getting their independence They’re not getting it by singing “We Shall Overcome.” No, they’re getting it through nationalism It is nationalism that brought about the independence of the people in Asia Every nation in Asia gained its independence through the philosophy of nationalism Every nation on the African continent that has gotten its independence brought it about through the philosophy of nationalism And it will take black nationalism that to bring about the freedom of 22 million Afro-Americans here in this country where we have suffered colonialism for the past 400 years

America is just as much a colonial power as England ever was America is just as much a colonial power as France ever was In fact, America is more so a colonial power than they because she’s a hypocritical colonial power behind it

What is 20th What you call second class citizenship? Why, that’s colonization Second class citizenship is nothing but 20th century slavery How you gonna tell me you’re a second class citizen? They don’t have second class citizenship in any other government on this earth They just have slaves and people who are free Well this country is a hypocrite They try and make you think they set you free by calling you a second class citizen No, you’re nothing but a 20th century slave

Just as it took nationalism to move to remove colonialism from Asia and Africa, it’ll take black nationalism today to remove colonialism from the backs and the minds of 22 million Afro-Americans here in this country

And 1964 looks like it might be the year of the ballot or the bullet

Why does it look like it might be the year of the ballot or the bullet? Because Negroes have listened to the trickery, and the lies, and the false promises of the white man now for too long And they’re fed up They’ve become disenchanted They’ve become disillusioned They’ve become dissatisfied, and all of this has built up frustrations in the black community that makes the black community throughout America today more explosive than all of the atomic bombs the Russians can ever invent Whenever you got a racial powder keg sitting in your lap, you’re in more trouble than if you had an atomic powder keg sitting in your lap When a racial powder keg goes off, it doesn’t care who it knocks out the way Understand this, it’s dangerous

And in 1964 this seems to be the year, because what can the white man use now to fool us after he put down that march on Washington? And you see all through that now He tricked you, had you marching down to Washington Yes, had you marching back and forth between the feet of a dead man named Lincoln and another dead man named George Washington singing “We Shall

Overcome.” He made a chump out of you He made a fool out of you He made you think you were going somewhere and you end up going nowhere but between Lincoln and Washington

So today, our people are disillusioned They’ve become disenchanted They’ve become dissatisfied, and in their frustrations they want action

And in 1964 you’ll see this young black man, this new generation asking for the ballot or the bullet That old Uncle Tom action is outdated The young generation don’t want to hear anything about the odds are against us What we care about odds?

Patrick Henry was a patriot, and George Washington, wasn’t nothing non-violent about old Pat or George Washington

Liberty or death was what brought about the freedom of whites in this country from the English They didn’t care about the odds Why they faced the wrath of the entire British Empire And in those days they used to say that the British Empire was so vast and so powerful when the sun the sun would never set on it This is how big it was, yet these 13 little scrawny states, tired of taxation without representation, tired of being exploited and oppressed and degraded, told that big British Empire “liberty or death.”

And here you have 22 million Afro-American black people today catching more hell than Patrick Henry ever saw And I’m I’m here to tell you in case you don’t know it that you got a new you got a new generation of black people in this country who don’t care anything whatsoever about odds They don’t want to hear you old Uncle Tom handkerchief heads talking about the odds No This is a new generation If they’re gonna draft these young black men and send them over to Korea or South Vietnam to face 800 million Chinese if you’re not afraid of those odds, you shouldn’t be afraid of these odds

Why is Why does this loom to be such an explosive political year? Because this is the year of politics This is the year when all of the white politicians are going to come into the Negro

community You never see them until election time You can’t find them until election time They’re going to come in with false promises, and as they make these false promises they're gonna feed our frustrations and this will only serve to make matters worse

I’m no politician I’m not even a student of politics I’m not a Republican, nor a Democrat, nor an American, and got sense enough to know it I’m one of the 22 million black victims of the

Democrats, one of the 22 million black victims of the Republicans, and one of the 22 million black victims of Americanism And when I speak, I don’t speak as a Democrat, or a Republican, *nor an American.* I speak as a victim of America’s so-called democracy You and I have never seen

democracy; all we’ve seen is hypocrisy When we open our eyes today and look around America, we see America not through the eyes of someone who have who has enjoyed the fruits of

Americanism, we see America through the eyes of someone who has been the victim of

Americanism We don’t see any American dream; we’ve experienced only the American nightmare We haven’t benefited from America’s democracy; we’ve only suffered from America’s hypocrisy And the generation that’s coming up now can see it and are not afraid to say it

If you If you go to jail, so what? If you black, you were born in jail If you black, you were born in jail, in the North as well as the South Stop talking about the South Long as you south of the Long as you south of the Canadian border, you’re south Don’t call Governor Wallace a Dixie governor; Romney is a Dixie governor

Twenty-two million black victims of Americanism are waking up and they’re gaining a new political consciousness, becoming politically mature And as they become develop this political maturity, they’re able to see the recent trends in these political elections They see that the whites are so evenly divided that every time they vote the race is so close they have to go back and count the votes all over again And that which means that any block, any minority that has a block of votes that stick

Washington D.C only because of the Negro vote They’ve been down there four years, and they're all other legislation they wanted to bring up they brought it up and gotten it out of the way, and now they bring up you And now, they bring up you You put them first, and they put you last, 'cause you’re a chump, a political chump

In Washington D.C., in the House of Representatives, there are 257 who are Democrats; only 177 are Republican In the Senate there are 67 Democrats; only 33 are Republicans The Party that you backed controls two-thirds of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and still they can’t keep their promise to you, 'cause you’re a chump Anytime you throw your weight behind a political party that controls two-thirds of the government, and that Party can’t keep the promise that it made to you during election time, and you’re dumb enough to walk around continuing to identify yourself with that Party, you’re not only a chump, but you’re a traitor to your race

And what kind of alibi they come up with? They try and pass the buck to the Dixiecrats Now back during the days when you were blind, deaf, and dumb, ignorant, politically immature, naturally you went along with that But today as your eyes come open, and you develop political maturity, you’re able to see and think for yourself, and you can see that a Dixiecrat is nothing but a Democrat in disguise

You look at the structure of the government that controls this country; it’s controlled by 16 senatorial committees and 20 congressional committees Of the 16 senatorial committees that run the

government, 10 of them are in the hands of Southern segregationists Of the 20 congressional

committees that run the government, 12 of them in the are in the hands of Southern segregationists And they're going to tell you and me that the South lost the war

You, today, have are in the hands of a government of segregationists, racists, white supremacists who belong to the Democratic party, but disguise themselves as Dixiecrats A Dixiecrat is nothing but a Democrat Whoever runs the Democrats is also the father of the Dixiecrats, and the father of all of them is sitting in the White House I say and I say it again: You got a President who’s nothing but a Southern segregationist from the state of Texas They’ll lynch you in Texas as quick as they’ll lynch you in Mississippi Only in in Texas they lynch you with a Texas accent; in Mississippi they lynch you with a Mississippi accent

And the first thing the cracker does when he comes in power, he takes all the Negro leaders and invites them for coffee to show that he’s alright And those Uncle Toms can’t pass up the coffee They come away from the coffee table telling you and me that this man is alright 'cause he’s from the South, and since he’s from the South he can deal with the South Look at the logic that they’re using What about Eastland? He’s from the South Make him the President He can If Johnson is a good man 'cause he’s from Texas, and being from Texas will enable him to deal with the South, Eastland can deal with the South better than Johnson Oh, I say you been mislead You been had You been took

the Dixiecrat, you’re destroying the power power of the Democratic Party So how in the world can the Democratic Party in the South actually side with you in sincerity, when all of its power is based in the in the South?

These Northern Democrats are in cahoots with the Southern Democrats They’re playing a giant game, a political game You know how it goes One of them One of them comes to you and makes believe he's for you, and he’s in cahoots with the other one that’s not for you Why? Because neither one of them is for you, but they got to make you go with one of them or the other So this is a game And this is what they’ve been doing with you and me all these years

First thing Johnson got off the plane when he become President, he asked “Where’s Dicky?” You know who “Dicky” is? Dicky is old Southern cracker Richard Richard Russell Look here, yes Lyndon B Johnson’s best friend is the one who is the head, who’s heading the forces that are filibustering civil rights legislation You tell me how in the hell is he going to be Johnson’s best friend? How can Johnson be his friend and your friend too? No, that man is too tricky Especially if his friend is still old Dicky

Whenever the Negroes keep the Democrats in power, they’re keeping the Dixiecrats in power Is this true? A vote for a Democrat is nothing but a vote for a Dixiecrat I know you don’t like me saying that, but I I’m not the kind of person who come here to say what you like I’m going to tell you the truth whether you like it or not

Up here, in the North you have the same thing The Democratic Party don’t don't it they don’t it that way They got a thing that they call gerrymandering They They maneuver you out of power Even though you can vote, they fix it so you’re voting for nobody; they got you going and coming In the South, they’re outright political wolves In the North, they’re political foxes A fox and a wolf are both canine, both belong to the dog family Now you take your choice You going to choose a Northern dog or a Southern dog? Because either dog you choose I guarantee you you’ll still be in the dog house

This is why I say it’s the ballot or the bullet It’s liberty or it’s death It’s freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody America today finds herself in a unique situation Historically, revolutions are bloody Oh, yes, they are They haven’t never had a blood-less revolution, or a non-violent

revolution That don’t happen even in Hollywood You don’t have a revolution in which you love your enemy, and you don’t have a revolution in which you are begging the system of exploitation to integrate you into it Revolutions overturn systems Revolutions destroy systems

A revolution is bloody, but America is in a unique position She’s the only country in history in a position actually to become involved in a blood-less revolution The The Russian revolution was bloody; Chinese revolution was bloody; French revolution was bloody; Cuban revolution was bloody; and there was nothing more bloody then the American Revolution But today this country can become involved in a revolution that won’t take bloodshed All she’s got to is give the black man in this country everything that’s due him everything

I hope that the white man can see this, 'cause if he don’t see it you’re finished If you don’t see it you’re going to be coming you’re going to become involved in some action in which you don’t have a chance And we don’t care anything about your atomic bomb; it's it’s useless because other countries have atomic bombs When two or three different countries have atomic bombs, nobody can use them, so it means that the white man today is without a weapon If you’re gonna If you want some action, you gotta come on down to Earth And there's more black people on Earth than there are white people on Earth

action that’s going on on this earth right now that he’s involved in Tell me where he’s winning Nowhere

Why some rice farmers some rice farmers some rice eaters ran him out of Korea Yes, they ran him out of Korea Rice eaters with nothing but gym shoes and a rifle and a bowl of rice took him and his tanks and his napalm and all that other action he’s supposed to have and ran him across the Yalu Why? 'Cause the day that he can win on the ground has passed

Up in French Indo-China those little peasants, rice growers, took on the might of the French army and ran all the Frenchmen you remember Dien Bien Phu No

The same thing happened in Algeria, in Africa They didn’t have anything but a rifle The French had all these highly mechanized instruments of warfare, but they put some guerilla action on, and a and a and a white man can’t fight a guerilla warfare Guerilla action takes heart, takes nerve, and he doesn’t have that He’s brave when he’s got tanks He’s brave when he’s got planes He’s brave when he’s got bombs He’s brave when he got a whole lot of company along with him, but you take that little man from Africa and Asia, turn him loose in the woods with a blade, with a blade that’s all he needs, all he needs is a blade –- and when the sun comes down goes downand it’s dark, it’s even-steven

So it’s the it's the ballot or the bullet Today our people can see that we’re faced with a government conspiracy This government has failed us The senators who are filibustering concerning your and my rights, that's the government Don’t say it’s Southern senators This is the government; this is a government filibuster It’s not a segregationist filibuster It’s a government filibuster Any kind of activity that takes place on the floor of the Congress or the Senate, that's the government Any kind of dilly-dallying, that’s the government Any kind of pussy-footing, that’s the government Any kind of act that’s designed to delay or deprive you and me right now of getting full rights, that’s the

government that's responsible And any time you find the government involved in a conspiracy to violate the citizenship or the civil rights of a people, then you are wasting your time going to that government expecting redress Instead, you have to take that government to the World Court and accuse it of genocide and all of the other crimes that it is guilty of today

So those of us whose political, and economic, and social philosophy is Black Nationalism have become involved in the civil rights struggle We have injected ourselves into the civil rights struggle, and we intend to expand it from the level of civil rights to the level of human rights As long as you're As long as you're fighting on the level of civil rights, you’re under Uncle Sam’s jurisdiction You’re going to his court expecting him to correct the problem He created the problem He’s the criminal You don’t take your case to the criminal; you take your criminal to court When the government of South Africa began to trample upon the human rights of the people of South Africa, they were taken to the U.N When the government of Portugal began to trample upon the the rights of our brothers and sisters in Angola, it was taken before the U.N Why even the white man took the Hungarian question to the U.N And just this week Chief Justice Goldberg was crying over million Jews in Russia about their human rights, charging Russia with violating the U.N charter because of its mistreatment of the human rights of Jews in Russia

Now you tell me how can the plight of everybody on this earth reach the halls of the United Nations, and you have 22 million Afro-Americans whose churches are being bombed, whose little girls are being murdered, whose whose leaders are being shot down in broad daylight Now you tell me why the leaders of this struggle have never taken it before the United Nations

[Uncle Sam ] and still has the audacity or the nerve to stand up and represent himself as the leader of the free world Not only is he a crook, he’s a hypocrite There he is standing up in front of other people, Uncle Sam, with the blood of your and mine mothers and fathers on his hands, with the blood dripping down his jaws like a bloody-jawed wolf, and still got the nerve to point his finger at other countries You can’t even get civil rights legislation And this man has got the nerve to stand up and talk about South Africa, or talk about Nazi Germany, or talk about [unclear] Nah, no more days like those

So, I say in my conclusion the only way we're going to solve it we gotta unite in unity and harmony, and Black Nationalism is the key How we gonna overcome the tendency to be at each other's throats that always exists in our neighborhoods? And the reason this tendency exists, the strategy of the white man has always been divide and conquer He keeps us divided in order to conquer us He tells you I’m for separation and you're for integration to keep us fighting with each other No, I’m not for separation and you’re not for integration What you and I is for is freedom Only you think that integration will get you freedom, I think separation will get me freedom We both got the same objective We just got different ways of getting at it

So I studied this man, Billy Graham, who preaches White Nationalism That’s what he preaches I say that’s what he preaches The whole church structure in this country is White Nationalism You go inside a white church that’s what they preaching: White Nationalism They got Jesus white, Mary white, God white, everybody white that’s White Nationalism So what he does the way he the way he the way he circumvents the the jealousy and envy that he ordinarily would incur among the heads of the church, wherever he go into an area where the church already is you going into trouble, 'cause they got that thing what you call it syndicated, they got a syndicate just like the Racketeers have I’m going to say what’s on my mind 'cause the churches are, the preachers already proved to you that they got a syndicate

And when you're out in the rackets, whenever you're getting in another man’s territory, you know, they gang up on you And that’s the same way with you you ran into the same thing So how Billy Graham gets around that, instead of going into somebody else’s territory, like he going to start up a new church, he don't he doesn’t try to start a church He just goes in preaching Christ And he says everybody who believe in Him, you go wherever you go wherever you find him So this helps all the churches and so since it helps all the churches they don’t fight him

Well, we gonna the same thing, only our gospel is Black Nationalism His gospel is White Nationalism; our gospel is Black Nationalism And the gospel of Black Nationalism, as I told you, means you should control your own the politics of your community, the economy of your community, and all of the society in which you live should be under your control And once you feel that this philosophy will solve your problem, go join any church where that’s preached Don’t join a church where White Nationalism is preached Now you can go to a negro church and be exposed to White Nationalism, 'cause you are when you walk in a negro church and a white Mary and some white angels that Negro church is preaching White Nationalism

T2: 29:02

But when you go to a church and you see the pastor of that church with a philosophy and a program that’s designed to bring black people together and elevate black people join that church Join that church If you see where the NAACP is preaching and practicing that which is designed to make Black Nationalism materialize join the NAACP Join any kind of organization civic, religious, fraternal, political, or otherwise that’s based on lifting the black man up and making him master of his own community

not ready to pay that price don’t use the word freedom in your vocabulary

One more thing: I was on a program in Illinois recently with Senator Paul Douglas, a so-called liberal, so-called Democrat, so-called white man, at which time he told me that our African brothers were not interested in us in Africa He said the Africans are not interested in the American Negro I knew he was lying, but during the next two or three weeks it’s my intention and plan to make a tour of our African homeland And I hope that when I come back, I’ll be able to come back and let you know how our African brothers and sisters feel toward us And I know before I go there that they love us We’re one; we’re the same; the same man who has colonized them all these years, colonized you and me too all these years And all we have to now is wake up and work in unity and harmony and the battle will be over

I want to thank the Freedom Now Party and the [unclear] I want to thank Milton and Richard Henley for inviting me here this afternoon, and also Reverend Cleage And I want them to know that

anything that I can ever do, at any time, to work with anybody in any kind of program that is

sincerely designed to eliminate the political, the economic, and the social evils that confront all of our people, in Detroit and elsewhere, all they got to is give me a telephone call and I’ll be on the next jet right on into the city

Lyndon Baines Johnson: "We Shall Overcome"

(Joint Session of Congress Address on Voting Legislation - delivered 15 March 1965, Washington, D.C.)

Mr Speaker, Mr President, Members of the Congress:

I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy I urge every member of both parties, Americans of all religions and of all colors, from every section of this country, to join me in that cause

At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom So it was at Lexington and Concord So it was a century ago at Appomattox So it was last week in Selma, Alabama There, long-suffering men and women

peacefully protested the denial of their rights as Americans Many were brutally assaulted One good man, a man of God, was killed

There is no cause for pride in what has happened in Selma There is no cause for self-satisfaction in the long denial of equal rights of millions of Americans But there is cause for hope and for faith in our democracy in what is happening here tonight For the cries of pain and the hymns and protests of oppressed people have summoned into convocation all the majesty of this great government the government of the greatest nation on earth Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to justice, to serve man

In our time we have come to live with the moments of great crisis Our lives have been marked with debate about great issues issues of war and peace, issues of prosperity and depression But rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself Rarely are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or abundance, or our welfare or our security, but rather to the values, and the purposes, and the meaning of our beloved nation

The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue

There is no Negro problem There is no Southern problem There is no Northern problem There is only an American problem And we are met here tonight as Americans not as Democrats or Republicans We are met here as Americans to solve that problem

This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, North and South: "All men are created equal," "government by consent of the governed," "give me liberty or give me death." Well, those are not just clever words, or those are not just empty theories In their name Americans have fought and died for two centuries, and tonight around the world they stand there as guardians of our liberty, risking their lives

Those words are a promise to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man This dignity cannot be found in a man's possessions; it cannot be found in his power, or in his position It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others It says that he shall share in freedom, he shall choose his leaders, educate his children, provide for his family according to his ability and his merits as a human being To apply any other test to deny a man his hopes because of his color, or race, or his religion, or the place of his birth is not only to injustice, it is to deny America and to dishonor the dead who gave their lives for American freedom

Our fathers believed that if this noble view of the rights of man was to flourish, it must be rooted in democracy The most basic right of all was the right to choose your own leaders The history of this country, in large measure, is the history of the expansion of that right to all of our people Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and most difficult But about this there can and should be no argument

Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote

There is no reason which can excuse the denial of that right There is no duty which weighs more heavily on us than the duty we have to ensure that right

Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes Every device of which human ingenuity is capable has been used to deny this right The Negro citizen may go to register only to be told that the day is wrong, or the hour is late, or the official in charge is absent And if he persists, and if he manages to present himself to the registrar, he may be disqualified because he did not spell out his middle name or because he

abbreviated a word on the application And if he manages to fill out an application, he is given a test The registrar is the sole judge of whether he passes this test He may be asked to recite the entire Constitution, or explain the most complex provisions of State law And even a college degree cannot be used to prove that he can read and write

For the fact is that the only way to pass these barriers is to show a white skin Experience has clearly shown that the existing process of law cannot overcome systematic and ingenious discrimination No law that we now have on the books and I have helped to put three of them there can ensure the right to vote when local officials are determined to deny it In such a case our duty must be clear to all of us The Constitution says that no person shall be kept from voting because of his race or his color We have all sworn an oath before God to support and to defend that Constitution We must now act in obedience to that oath

them my views, and to visit with my former colleagues I've had prepared a more comprehensive analysis of the legislation which I had intended to transmit to the clerk tomorrow, but which I will submit to the clerks tonight But I want to really discuss with you now, briefly, the main proposals of this legislation

This bill will strike down restrictions to voting in all elections Federal, State, and local which have been used to deny Negroes the right to vote This bill will establish a simple, uniform standard which cannot be used, however ingenious the effort, to flout our Constitution It will provide for citizens to be registered by officials of the United States Government, if the State officials refuse to register them It will eliminate tedious, unnecessary lawsuits which delay the right to vote Finally, this legislation will ensure that properly registered individuals are not prohibited from voting

I will welcome the suggestions from all of the Members of Congress I have no doubt that I will get some on ways and means to strengthen this law and to make it effective But experience has plainly shown that this is the only path to carry out the command of the Constitution

To those who seek to avoid action by their National Government in their own communities, who want to and who seek to maintain purely local control over elections, the answer is simple: open your polling places to all your people

Allow men and women to register and vote whatever the color of their skin Extend the rights of citizenship to every citizen of this land

There is no constitutional issue here The command of the Constitution is plain There is no moral issue It is wrong deadly wrong to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country There is no issue of States' rights or national rights There is only the struggle for human rights I have not the slightest doubt what will be your answer

But the last time a President sent a civil rights bill to the Congress, it contained a provision to protect voting rights in Federal elections That civil rights bill was passed after eight long months of debate And when that bill came to my desk from the Congress for my signature, the heart of the voting provision had been eliminated This time, on this issue, there must be no delay, or no hesitation, or no compromise with our purpose

We cannot, we must not, refuse to protect the right of every American to vote in every election that he may desire to participate in And we ought not, and we cannot, and we must not wait another eight months before we get a bill We have already waited a hundred years and more, and the time for waiting is gone

So I ask you to join me in working long hours nights and weekends, if necessary to pass this bill And I don't make that request lightly For from the window where I sit with the problems of our country, I recognize that from outside this chamber is the outraged conscience of a nation, the grave concern of many nations, and the harsh judgment of history on our acts

But even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and State of America It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life Their cause must be our cause too Because it's not just Negroes, but really it's all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice

And we shall overcome

how difficult it is to reshape the attitudes and the structure of our society But a century has passed, more than a hundred years since the Negro was freed And he is not fully free tonight

It was more than a hundred years ago that Abraham Lincoln, a great President of another party, signed the Emancipation Proclamation; but emancipation is a proclamation, and not a fact A century has passed, more than a hundred years, since equality was promised And yet the Negro is not equal A century has passed since the day of promise And the promise is un-kept

The time of justice has now come I tell you that I believe sincerely that no force can hold it back It is right in the eyes of man and God that it should come And when it does, I think that day will brighten the lives of every American For Negroes are not the only victims How many white children have gone uneducated? How many white families have lived in stark poverty? How many white lives have been scarred by fear, because we've wasted our energy and our substance to maintain the barriers of hatred and terror?

And so I say to all of you here, and to all in the nation tonight, that those who appeal to you to hold on to the past so at the cost of denying you your future

This great, rich, restless country can offer opportunity and education and hope to all, all black and white, all North and South, sharecropper and city dweller These are the enemies: poverty, ignorance, disease They're our enemies, not our fellow man, not our neighbor And these enemies too

poverty, disease, and ignorance: we shall overcome

Now let none of us in any section look with prideful righteousness on the troubles in another section, or the problems of our neighbors There's really no part of America where the promise of equality has been fully kept In Buffalo as well as in Birmingham, in Philadelphia as well as Selma, Americans are struggling for the fruits of freedom This is one nation What happens in Selma or in Cincinnati is a matter of legitimate concern to every American But let each of us look within our own hearts and our own communities, and let each of us put our shoulder to the wheel to root out injustice wherever it exists

As we meet here in this peaceful, historic chamber tonight, men from the South, some of whom were at Iwo Jima, men from the North who have carried Old Glory to far corners of the world and brought it back without a stain on it, men from the East and from the West, are all fighting together without regard to religion, or color, or region, in Vietnam Men from every region fought for us across the world twenty years ago

And now in these common dangers and these common sacrifices, the South made its contribution of honor and gallantry no less than any other region in the Great Republic and in some instances, a great many of them, more

And I have not the slightest doubt that good men from everywhere in this country, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Golden Gate to the harbors along the Atlantic, will rally now together in this cause to vindicate the freedom of all Americans

For all of us owe this duty; and I believe that all of us will respond to it Your President makes that request of every American

The real hero of this struggle is the American Negro His actions and protests, his courage to risk safety and even to risk his life, have awakened the conscience of this nation His demonstrations have been designed to call attention to injustice, designed to provoke change, designed to stir reform He has called upon us to make good the promise of America And who among us can say that we would have made the same progress were it not for his persistent bravery, and his faith in American

For at the real heart of battle for equality is a deep seated belief in the democratic process Equality depends not on the force of arms or tear gas but depends upon the force of moral right; not on recourse to violence but on respect for law and order

And there have been many pressures upon your President and there will be others as the days come and go But I pledge you tonight that we intend to fight this battle where it should be fought in the courts, and in the Congress, and in the hearts of men

We must preserve the right of free speech and the right of free assembly But the right of free speech does not carry with it, as has been said, the right to holler fire in a crowded theater We must preserve the right to free assembly But free assembly does not carry with it the right to block public

thoroughfares to traffic

We have a right to protest, and a right to march under conditions that not infringe the constitutional rights of our neighbors And I intend to protect all those rights as long as I am permitted to serve in this office

We will guard against violence, knowing it strikes from our hands the very weapons which we seek: progress, obedience to law, and belief in American values

In Selma, as elsewhere, we seek and pray for peace We seek order We seek unity But we will not accept the peace of stifled rights, or the order imposed by fear, or the unity that stifles protest For peace cannot be purchased at the cost of liberty

In Selma tonight and we had a good day there as in every city, we are working for a just and peaceful settlement And we must all remember that after this speech I am making tonight, after the police and the FBI and the Marshals have all gone, and after you have promptly passed this bill, the people of Selma and the other cities of the Nation must still live and work together And when the attention of the nation has gone elsewhere, they must try to heal the wounds and to build a new community

This cannot be easily done on a battleground of violence, as the history of the South itself shows It is in recognition of this that men of both races have shown such an outstandingly impressive

responsibility in recent days last Tuesday, again today

The bill that I am presenting to you will be known as a civil rights bill But, in a larger sense, most of the program I am recommending is a civil rights program Its object is to open the city of hope to all people of all races

Because all Americans just must have the right to vote And we are going to give them that right All Americans must have the privileges of citizenship regardless of race And they are going to have those privileges of citizenship regardless of race

But I would like to caution you and remind you that to exercise these privileges takes much more than just legal right It requires a trained mind and a healthy body It requires a decent home, and the chance to find a job, and the opportunity to escape from the clutches of poverty

Few of them could speak English, and I couldn't speak much Spanish My students were poor and they often came to class without breakfast, hungry And they knew, even in their youth, the pain of prejudice They never seemed to know why people disliked them But they knew it was so, because I saw it in their eyes I often walked home late in the afternoon, after the classes were finished, wishing there was more that I could But all I knew was to teach them the little that I knew, hoping that it might help them against the hardships that lay ahead

And somehow you never forget what poverty and hatred can when you see its scars on the hopeful face of a young child I never thought then, in 1928, that I would be standing here in 1965 It never even occurred to me in my fondest dreams that I might have the chance to help the sons and daughters of those students and to help people like them all over this country

But now I have that chance and I'll let you in on a secret I mean to use it And I hope that you will use it with me

This is the richest and the most powerful country which ever occupied this globe The might of past empires is little compared to ours But I not want to be the President who built empires, or sought grandeur, or extended dominion

I want to be the President who educated young children to the wonders of their world

I want to be the President who helped to feed the hungry and to prepare them to be tax-payers instead of tax-eaters

I want to be the President who helped the poor to find their own way and who protected the right of every citizen to vote in every election

I want to be the President who helped to end hatred among his fellow men, and who promoted love among the people of all races and all regions and all parties

I want to be the President who helped to end war among the brothers of this earth

And so, at the request of your beloved Speaker, and the Senator from Montana, the majority leader, the Senator from Illinois, the minority leader, Mr McCulloch, and other Members of both parties, I came here tonight not as President Roosevelt came down one time, in person, to veto a bonus bill, not as President Truman came down one time to urge the passage of a railroad bill but I came down here to ask you to share this task with me, and to share it with the people that we both work for I want this to be the Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, which did all these things for all these people

Beyond this great chamber, out yonder in fifty States, are the people that we serve Who can tell what deep and unspoken hopes are in their hearts tonight as they sit there and listen We all can guess, from our own lives, how difficult they often find their own pursuit of happiness, how many problems each little family has They look most of all to themselves for their futures But I think that they also look to each of us

John F Kennedy: Inaugural Address (delivered January 20, 1961)

Vice President Johnson, Mr Speaker, Mr Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman, Reverend Clergy, fellow citizens:

We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning signifying renewal, as well as change For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago

The world is very different now For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of

Americans born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty

This much we pledge and more

To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends United there is little we cannot in a host of cooperative ventures Divided there is little we can for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder

To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside

To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich

To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge: to convert our good words into good deeds, in a new alliance for progress, to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers Let all our neighbors know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas And let every other power know that this hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house

weak, and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run

Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction

We dare not tempt them with weakness For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed

But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of

mankind's final war

So let us begin anew remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate

Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms, and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations

Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and

commerce

Let both sides unite to heed, in all corners of the earth, the command of Isaiah to "undo the heavy burdens, and [to] let the oppressed go free."¹

And, if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor not a new balance of power, but a new world of law where the strong are just, and the weak secure, and the peace preserved

All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days; nor in the life of this Administration; nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet But let us begin

In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe

Now the trumpet summons us again not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need not as a call to battle, though embattled we are but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation,"² a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

freedom in its hour of maximum danger I not shrink from this responsibility I welcome it I not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it And the glow from that fire can truly light the world

And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can for you; ask what you can for your country

My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will for you, but what together we can for the freedom of man

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own

ohn F Kennedy: Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association (delivered 12 September 1960 at the Rice Hotel in Houston, TX)

Reverend Meza, Reverend Reck, I'm grateful for your generous invitation to state my views While the so-called religious issue is necessarily and properly the chief topic here tonight, I want to emphasize from the outset that I believe that we have far more critical issues in the 1960 campaign; the spread of Communist influence, until it now festers only 90 miles from the coast of Florida the humiliating treatment of our President and Vice President by those who no longer respect our power the hungry children I saw in West Virginia, the old people who cannot pay their doctors bills, the families forced to give up their farms an America with too many slums, with too few schools, and too late to the moon and outer space These are the real issues which should decide this campaign And they are not religious issues for war and hunger and ignorance and despair know no religious barrier

But because I am a Catholic, and no Catholic has ever been elected President, the real issues in this campaign have been obscured perhaps deliberately, in some quarters less responsible than this So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again not what kind of church I believe in, for that should be important only to me but what kind of America I believe in

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute; where no Catholic prelate would tell the President should he be Catholic how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference, and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him, or the people who might elect him

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accept instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source; where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials, and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all

harmonious society is ripped apart at a time of great national peril

Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end, where all men and all churches are treated as equals, where every man has the same right to attend or not to attend the church of his choice, where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind, and where Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, at both the lay and the pastoral levels, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood

That is the kind of America in which I believe And it represents the kind of Presidency in which I believe, a great office that must be neither humbled by making it the instrument of any religious group nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding it its occupancy from the members of any one religious group I believe in a President whose views on religion are his own private affair, neither imposed upon him by the nation, nor imposed by the nation upon him¹ as a condition to holding that office

I would not look with favor upon a President working to subvert the first amendment's guarantees of religious liberty; nor would our system of checks and balances permit him to so And neither I look with favor upon those who would work to subvert Article VI of the Constitution by requiring a religious test, even by indirection For if they disagree with that safeguard, they should be openly working to repeal it

I want a Chief Executive whose public acts are responsible to all and obligated to none, who can attend any ceremony, service, or dinner his office may appropriately require of him to fulfill; and whose fulfillment of his Presidential office is not limited or conditioned by any religious oath, ritual, or obligation

This is the kind of America I believe in and this is the kind of America I fought for in the South Pacific, and the kind my brother died for in Europe No one suggested then that we might have a divided loyalty, that we did not believe in liberty, or that we belonged to a disloyal group that threatened I quote "the freedoms for which our forefathers died."

And in fact this is the kind of America for which our forefathers did die when they fled here to escape religious test oaths that denied office to members of less favored churches when they fought for the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom and when they fought at the shrine I visited today, the Alamo For side by side with Bowie and Crockett died Fuentes, and McCafferty, and Bailey, and Badillo, and Carey but no one knows whether they were Catholics or not For there was no religious test there

I ask you tonight to follow in that tradition to judge me on the basis of 14 years in the Congress, on my declared stands against an Ambassador to the Vatican, against unconstitutional aid to parochial schools, and against any boycott of the public schools which I attended myself And instead of doing this, not judge me on the basis of these pamphlets and publications we all have seen that carefully select quotations out of context from the statements of Catholic church leaders, usually in other countries, frequently in other centuries, and rarely relevant to any situation here And always omitting, of course, the statement of the American Bishops in 1948 which strongly endorsed Church-State separation, and which more nearly reflects the views of almost every American Catholic I not consider these other quotations binding upon my public acts Why should you?

and those which deny it to Catholics And rather than cite the misdeeds of those who differ, I would also cite the record of the Catholic Church in such nations as France and Ireland, and the

independence of such statesmen as De Gaulle and Adenauer But let me stress again that these are my views

For contrary to common newspaper usage, I am not the Catholic candidate for President I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President who happens also to be a Catholic

I not speak for my church on public matters; and the church does not speak for me Whatever issue may come before me as President, if I should be elected, on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject, I will make my decision in accordance with these views in

accordance with what my conscience tells me to be in the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressure or dictates And no power or threat of punishment could cause me to decide otherwise

But if the time should ever come and I not concede any conflict to be remotely possible when my office would require me to either violate my conscience or violate the national interest, then I would resign the office; and I hope any conscientious public servant would likewise

But I not intend to apologize for these views to my critics of either Catholic or Protestant faith; nor I intend to disavow either my views or my church in order to win this election

If I should lose on the real issues, I shall return to my seat in the Senate, satisfied that I'd tried my best and was fairly judged

But if this election is decided on the basis that 40 million Americans lost their chance of being President on the day they were baptized, then it is the whole nation that will be the loser, in the eyes of Catholics and non-Catholics around the world, in the eyes of history, and in the eyes of our own people

But if, on the other hand, I should win this election, then I shall devote every effort of mind and spirit to fulfilling the oath of the Presidency practically identical, I might add, with the oath I have taken for 14 years in the Congress For without reservation, I can, "solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution so help me God

Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation (delivered on December 8, 1941)

Mr Vice President, Mr Speaker, Members of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives: Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 a date which will live in infamy the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan

The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific

to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago During the intervening time, the Japanese government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost In addition,

American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya

Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam

Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island

And this morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation

As commander in chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory

I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us

Hostilities exist There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger

With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph so help us God

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire Franklin Delano Roosevelt: First Inaugural Address

President Hoover, Mr Chief Justice, my friends:

that on my induction into the Presidency, I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impels

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today This great Nation will endure, as it has endured, will revive and will prosper

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance In every dark hour of our national life, a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory And I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days

In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties They concern, thank God, only material things Values have shrunk to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; and the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment And yet our distress comes from no failure of substance We are stricken by no plague of locusts Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered, because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply

Primarily, this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and have abdicated Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men

True, they have tried But their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition Faced by failure of credit, they have proposed only the lending of more money Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence They only know the rules of a generation of self-seekers They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish

Yes, the money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths The measure of that restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort The joy, the moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits These dark days, my friends, will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves, to our fellow men

Recognition of that falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish

Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone This Nation is asking for action, and action now

Our greatest primary task is to put people to work This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing great greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our great natural resources

Hand in hand with that we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land

Yes, the task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products, and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, the State, and the local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, unequal It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities that have a definitely public character There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped by merely talking about it

We must act We must act quickly

And finally, in our progress towards a resumption of work, we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order There must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and

investments There must be an end to speculation with other people's money And there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency

These, my friends, are the lines of attack I shall presently urge upon a new Congress in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the 48 States

Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time, and necessity, secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy I favor, as a practical policy, the putting of first things first I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment; but the emergency at home cannot wait on that

accomplishment

The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not nationally narrowly nationalistic It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in and parts of the United States of America a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer It is the way to recovery It is the immediate way It is the strongest assurance that recovery will endure

In the field of world policy, I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor: the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others; the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors

interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take, but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a

common discipline, because without such discipline no progress can be made, no leadership becomes effective

We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and our property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at the larger good This, I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us, bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in times of armed strife

With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems

Action in this image, action to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors Our Constitution is so simple, so practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has ever seen

It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations And it is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly equal, wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure

I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption

But, in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe

For the trust reposed in me, I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time I can no less

We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike We aim at the assurance of a rounded, a permanent national life

We not distrust the the future of essential democracy The people of the United States have not failed In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership They have made me the present instrument of their wishes In the spirit of the gift I take it

In this dedication In this dedication of a Nation, we humbly ask the blessing of God May He protect each and every one of us

Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream”

(delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.)

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice It came as a joyous

daybreak to end the long night of their captivity

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges

again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom

We cannot walk alone

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead We cannot turn back

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities *We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating: "For Whites Only."* We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells And some of you have come from areas where your quest quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality You have been the veterans of creative suffering Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character

I have a dream today!

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."²

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of

brotherhood With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day

And this will be the day this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi From every mountainside, let freedom ring

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!