Howard University Commencement 1965

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[silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] Dr. Nabrit, Of behalf of the university. I have the honor to present the President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson... [applause] [applause interrupts speaking] [applause] [applause] - You want to sit down while I read this... Lyndon Baines Johnson. We pay tribute to you today for what you are, for what you have done for our country, and for mankind and for what you propose to do. On this occasion, however, we wish

especially to express our gratitude, which is also that of the nation, for confronting us in these uneven and swiftly changing times with the challenge of the Great Society. You have not only challenged us with this concept, this ideal, but your spending of days and nights to see that it is translated into law, through one act of Congress after another, and you are bending your vast energies to make this ideal, the ideal of every American man and woman. For you understand that its realization in the final analysis rests upon the dedication to it by the heart of the nation. You have called us to the ideal of the Great Society, from what you are and from what you propose, we are saying you have in mind also what some would call the good society. We know you desire with the abolishment of physical material poverty, a message

strived towards the abolishment of the poverty of the spirit. When you call for voting rights on equal terms for all our citizens, you foresee an upsurge of moral responsibility across our land. When you demand fair housing, you dream of the effect upon character by improved surroundings upon the character of the parents and upon the character of the children for generations to come. You ask not simply for better houses, but for better homes. When you call for civil rights for all Americans, you see a transformation in American character. What they shall call "our previous conditions," shall no longer determine one's judgment, but rather whether judgment will be on the basis of our common heritage as children of the same father. We cannot sleep for pondering the dream to which you have awakened us: compassion for the poor, the weak, the disinherited, a land where another's welfare becomes as important to us as our

own. A beautiful land along and beyond the highways in every corner of our great throbbing cities, you dream of a just, a free and humane society. Lyndon Baines Johnson for this and much more we thank you. And now by vote of the Board of Trustees of Howard University, speaking for the entire university community, I hereby confer upon you the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities pertaining thereto. [applause] [applause] Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States. Dr. Nablin, my fellow Americans, I am delighted at the chance to speak at this

important and this historic institution. Howard has long been an outstanding center for the education of Negro Americans. Its students are of every race and color and they come from many countries of the world. It is truly a working example of democratic excellence. [applause] Our earth is the home of revolution. In every corner of every continent, men charged

with hope, contend with ancient ways in the pursuit of justice. They reach for the newest of weapons to realize the oldest of dreams: that each may walk in freedom and pride, stretching his talents, enjoying the fruits of the earth. Our enemies may occasionally seize the day of change, but it is the banner of our revolution they take and our own future is linked to this process of swift and turbulent change in many lands in the world. But nothing in any country touches us more profoundly, and nothing is more freighted with meaning for our own

destiny than the revolution of the Negro American. In far too many ways, American Negroes have been another nation, deprived of freedom, crippled by hatred, the doors of opportunity closed to hope. In our time, change has come to this nation too. The American Negro, acting with impressive restraint, has peacefully protested and marched, entered the courtroom and the seats of government, demanding a justice that has long been denied. The voice of the Negro was the call to action, but it is a tribute to America that once

aroused, the courts and the Congress, the President and most of the people have been the allies of progress. Thus we have seen the high court of the country declare that discrimination based on race was repugnant to the Constitution and therefore void. We have seen in 1957, in 1960 and again in 1964, the first civil rights legislation in this nation in almost an entire century. [applause] As majority leader of the United States Senate, I helped to guide two of these bills through the Senate and as your president... [applause] I was proud to sign

the third. [applause] And now, very soon, we will have the fourth. [applause] A new law guaranteeing every American the right to vote. [applause] No act of my entire administration will give me greater satisfaction than the day when my signature makes this bill to the law of this land. [applause] The voting rights bill will be the latest and among the most

important in a long series of victories. But this victory, as Winston Churchill said of another trial for freedom, is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning. That beginning is freedom. And the barriers to that freedom are tumbling down. [applause] Freedom is the right to share: share fully and equally in American society, to vote, to hold a job, to enter a public place, to go to school. It is the right to be treated in every part of our

national life as a person equal in dignity and promise to all others. [applause] But freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying now you are free to go where you want, to do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please. You do not take a person who for years has been hobbled by chains and liberating, bringing up to the starting line of a race and then say, "You are free to compete with all the others" and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk

through those gates. And this is the next and the more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity but human ability. Not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and equality as a result. [applause] For the task is to give 20 million Negroes the same chance as every other America to learn and grow, to work and share in society,

to develop their abilities -- physical, mental and spiritual -- and to pursue their individual happiness. To this end equal opportunity is essential but not enough, not enough. Men and women of all races are born with the same range of abilities, but ability is not just the product of birth. Ability is stretched or stunted by the family that you live with and the neighborhood you live in. By the school you go to, and the poverty or the richness of your surroundings. It is the product of a hundred unseen forces playing upon the little

infant, the child, and finally the man. This graduating class at Howard University is witness to the indomitable determination of the Negro American to win his way in American life. [applause] The number of Negroes in schools of higher learning has almost doubled in 15 years. The number of non-white professional workers has more than doubled in 10 years. The median income of Negro college women tonight exceeds that of white college women and there are also the enormous accomplishments of distinguished individual Negroes. Many of them graduates

of this institution and one of them, the first lady ambassador in the history of the United States. [applause] These are proud and impressive achievements. But they tell only the story of a growing middle class minority, steadily narrowing the gap between them and their white counterparts. But for the great majority of Negro Americans, the poor, the unemployed, the uprooted and the dispossessed, there is a much grimmer story. They still, as we meet here tonight, are another nation. Despite the court orders

and the laws, despite the legislative victories and the speeches, for them, the walls are rising and the gulf is widening. And here are some of the facts of this American failure. Thirty-five years ago, the rate of unemployment for Negroes and whites was about the same. Tonight, the Negro rate is twice as high. In 1948, the 8% unemployment rate for Negro teenage boys was actually less than that of whites. By last year, that rate had grown to 23% as against 13% for whites, unemployed. Between 1949 and 1959, the income of Negro men, relative

to white men, declined in every section of this country. From 1952 to 1963, the median income of Negro families, compared to white, actually dropped from 57% to 53%. In the years 1955 through 1957, 22% of experienced Negro workers were out of work at some time during the year. In 1961 through 1963, that proportion had soared to 29%. Since 1947, the number of white families living in poverty has decreased 27%, while the number of poor

non-white families decreased only 3%. The infant mortality of non-whites in 1940 was 70% greater than whites. 22 years later, it was 90% greater. Moreover, the isolation of Negro from white communities is increasing rather than decreasing, as Negroes crowd into the central cities and become a city within a city. Of course, Negro Americans, as well as white Americans, have shared in our rising national abundance. But the harsh fact of the matter is that in the battle for true equality, too many, far too many, are losing ground every day. We're

not completely sure why this is. We know the causes are complex and subtle. But we do know the two broad basic reasons. And we do know that we have to act. First, Negroes are trapped, as many whites are trapped, in inherited, gateless poverty. They lack training and skills. They are shut in in slums without decent medical care. Private and public poverty combine to cripple their capacities. We are trying to attack these evils through my poverty program, through our education program, through our medical care and our other health programs,

and a dozen more of the Great Society programs that are aimed at the root causes of this poverty. We will increase, and we will accelerate, and we will broaden this attack in years to come, until this most enduring of foes finally yields to our unyielding will. [applause] But there's a second cause, much more difficult to explain, more deeply grounded, more desperate in its force. And it is the devastating heritage of long years of slavery, and a century of oppression, and hatred, and injustice. For Negro poverty is not white poverty. Many of

its causes and many of its cures are the same, but there are differences. Deep, corrosive, obstinate differences, radiating painful roots into the community, and into the family, and the nature of the individual. These differences are not racial differences. They are solely and simply the consequence of ancient brutality, past injustice, and present prejudice. [applause] They are anguishing to observe. For the Negro, they are a constant reminder of oppression.

For the white, they are a constant reminder of guilt. But they must be faced, and they must be dealt with, and they must be overcome. [applause] If we are ever to reach the time when the only difference between Negroes and whites is the color of their skin. [applause] Now, can we find a complete answer in the experience of other American minorities? They made a valiant and a largely successful effort to emerge from poverty and prejudice. The Negro, like

these others, will have to rely mostly on his own efforts, but he just cannot do it alone. For they did not have the heritage of centuries to overcome, and they did not have a cultural tradition which had been twisted and battered by endless years of hatred and hopelessness. Nor were they excluded, these others, because of race, or color. A feeling whose dark intensity is matched by no other prejudice in our society. Nor can these differences be understood as isolated infirmities. They are a seamless web. They cause each other. They result from each other. They reinforce each other. Much of the Negro community is

buried under a blanket of history and circumstance. It is not a lasting solution to lift just one corner of that blanket. We must stand on all sides, and we must raise the entire cover if we are to liberate our fellow citizens. [applause] One of the differences is the increased concentration of Negroes in our cities. More than 73% of all Negroes live in urban areas compared with less than 70% of the whites. Most of these Negroes live in slums. Most of these Negroes live together, a separated people, and men are shaped by their world.

When it is a world of decay, ringed by an invisible wall, when escape is arduous and uncertain, when the saving pressures of a more hopeful society are unknown, it can cripple the youth and it can desolate the men. There is also the burden that a dark skin can add to the search for a productive place in our society. Unemployment strikes most swiftly and broadly at the Negro. And this burden erodes hope. Blighted hope breeds despair. Despair brings indifference to the learning which offers a way out. And despair coupled with indifference

is often the source of destructive rebellion against the fabric of society. There is also the lacerating hurt of early collision with white hatred or prejudice, distaste or condescension. Other groups have felt similar intolerance. But success and achievement could wipe it away. They do not change the color of a man's skin. I have seen this uncomprehending pain in the eyes of the little young Mexican-American schoolchildren that I taught many years ago. But it can be overcome. But for many, the wounds are always open. Perhaps most important,

its influence radiating to every part of life is the breakdown of the Negro family structure. For this, most of all, white America must accept responsibility. It flows from centuries of oppression and persecution of the Negro man. It flows from the long years of degradation and discrimination which have attacked his dignity and assaulted his ability to produce for his family. This too is not pleasant to look upon. But it must be faced by those whose serious intent is to improve the life of all Americans. Only a minority, less than half, of all Negro children reach the age of 18 having lived all their lives with both of

their parents. At this moment tonight, a little less than two-thirds are at home with both of their parents. Probably a majority of all Negro children receive federally-aided public assistance sometime during their childhood. The family is the cornerstone of our society. More than any other force it shapes the attitude, the hopes, the ambitions, and the values of the child. And when the family collapses, it is the children that are usually damaged. When it happens on a massive scale, the entire community itself is crippled. So, unless we work to strengthen the family, to create conditions under which most parents

will stay together, all the rest -- schools and playgrounds and public assistance, and private concern -- will never be enough to cut completely the circle of despair and deprivation. [applause] There is no single easy answer to all of these problems. Jobs are part of the answer. They bring the income which permits a man to provide for his family. Decent homes and decent surroundings, and a chance to learn, an equal chance to learn, are part of the answer. Welfare and social programs, better designed to hold families together, are part of the answer. Care for

the sick is part of the answer. An understanding heart by all Americans is another big part of the answer. [applause] And to all of these fronts and a dozen more, I will dedicate the expanding efforts of the Johnson administration. [applause] But there are other answers that are still to be found. Nor do we fully understand even all of the problems. Therefore, I want to announce tonight that this fall, I intend to call a White House conference of scholars

and experts and outstanding Negro leaders of both races and officials of government at every level. This White House conference theme and title will be, "To Fulfill These Rights." [applause] Its object will be to help the American Negro fulfill the rights, which after the long time of injustice, he is finally about to secure, to move beyond opportunity to achievement, to shatter forever not only the barriers of law and public practice, but the walls which

bound the condition of man by the color of his skin. [applause] To dissolve as best we can, the antique emnities of the heart which diminish the holder, divide the great democracy and do wrong, great wrong, to the children of God. And I pledge you tonight that this will be a chief goal of my administration and of my program next year and in the years to come. [applause] And I hope and I pray and I believe it will be a part of the program of all America. For what is justice? It is to fulfill the fair expectations of man. Thus, American

justice is a very special thing. For from the first, this has been a land of towering expectations. It was to be a nation where each man could be ruled by the common consent of all, enshrined in law, given life by institutions, guided by men themselves subject to its rule. And all, all of every station and origin would be touched equally in obligation and in liberty. Beyond the law lay the land. It was a rich land glowing with more abundant promise than man had ever seen. Here, unlike any place yet known, all were to share the harvest. And

beyond this was the dignity of man. Each could become whatever his qualities of mind and spirit would permit to strive to seek and if he could to find his happiness. This is American justice. We have pursued it faithfully to the edge of our imperfections. And we have failed to find it for the American Negro. So it is the glorious opportunity of this generation to end the one huge wrong of the American nation and in so doing to find America for ourselves

with the same immense thrill of discovery which gripped those who first began to realize that here at last was a home for freedom. [applause] And all it will take is for all of us to understand what this country is and what this country must become. The scripture promises, "I shall light a candle of understanding in thine heart which shall not be put out." Together and with millions more, we can light that candle of understanding in the heart of all America.

And once lit, it will never again go out. [applause] Thank you.