My fellow Americans:
We have endured a week such as no Nation should live through: a time of violence and tragedy.
For a few minutes tonight, I want to talk about that tragedy - and I want to talk about the deeper questions it raises for us all.
I am appointing a special Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders.
Governor Otto Kerner, of Illinois, has agreed to serve as Chairman, Mayor John Lindsay, of New York, will serve as Vice Chairman...
The Commission will investigate the origins of the recent disorders in our cities. It will make recommendations - to me, to the Congress, to the State Governors, and to the Mayors - for measures to prevent or contain such disasters in the future.
But even before the Commission begins its work; and before all the evidence is in, there are some things that we can tell about the outbreaks of this summer.
First - let there be no mistake about it - the looting, arson, plunder and pillage which have occurred are not part of a civil rights protest. There is no American right to loot stores, or to burn buildings, or to fire rifles from the rooftops. That is crime - and crime must be dealt with forcefully, and swiftly, and certainty - under law...
Those charged with the responsibility of law enforcement should, and must, be respected by all of our people. The violence must be stopped: quickly, finally, and permanently.
It would compound the tragedy, however, if we should settle for order that is imposed by the muzzle of a gun.
In America, we seek more than the uneasy calm of martial law. We seek peace based on one man's respect for another man - and upon mutual respect for law. We seek a public order that is built on steady progress in meeting the needs of all our people.
Not even the sternest police action, nor the most effective Federal Troops, can create lasting peace in our cities.
The only genuine, long-range solution for what has happened lies in an attack - mounted at every level - upon the conditions that breed despair and violence. All of us know what those conditions are: ignorance, discrimination, slums, poverty, disease, not enough jobs. We should attack these conditions - not because we are frightened by conflict, but because we are fired by conscience. We should attack them because there is simply no other way to achieve a decent and orderly society in America...
This is not a time for angry reaction. It is a time for action: starting with legislative action to improve the life in our cities. The strength and promise of the law are the surest remedies for tragedy in the street.
But laws are only one answer. Another answer lies in the way our people will respond to these disturbances.
There is a danger that the worst toll of this tragedy will be counted in the hearts of Americans; in hatred, in insecurity, in fear, in heated words which will not end the conflict, but prolong it.
So let us acknowledge the tragedy; but let us not exaggerate it...
-- Lyndon Baines Johnson, 27 July 1967
The Kerner Commission concluded, among many other things, "Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white - separate and unequal."
Impressive! But according to social scientists, the Great Society was not a success. And in 1972 McGovern, with similar ideas, was an electoral disaster.
ReplyDelete«And in 1972 McGovern, with similar ideas, was an electoral disaster.»
ReplyDeleteEvery time there is an event like this the Republicans and "blue dog" democrats can rest assured of a massive turn to the right in voting. Apart from that the McGovern campaign was also wildly incompetent.
There is humorous yet unfortunately descriptive book about America called "How to scrape skies" by an english-hugarian author that has these passages (the book is from the 1950s):
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.524303/
«Once I was taken by a white lady friend of mine to a N*gro club for backward youths where a boy of fourteen acquainted us with his racial theories and plans: "One day we are going into the streets" he said in a dreaming voice: "We shall carry long, long knives, dripping with blood. We are going to kill all the white people on that night. All of them. You too, Miss Catherine, although you are very nice and sweet to us" Then he looked at me and added politely: "And all the visitors, too".
"How can you say things like that?" my friend exclaimed, surprised and a little terrified. The boy looked at us and replied with an angelic smile: "I am so young, Miss Catherine, and so backward".»
«The law may say whatever it likes; a few high-minded judges may pronounce judgments inspired by the noblest sentiments; a gradually enlightened and increasingly worried public opinion may try to exercise pressure, but the wall of prejudice seems to be impenetrable. The owner of a restaurant will say to a Negro that all his tables are booked; or if a Negro succeeds in finding a place he will instruct his waiters not to serve him. Then the owner withdraws into a corner and continues a heated argument with his friends about the problem of the Macedonian minority not enjoying equal rights in Bulgaria or the Jews not being fairly treated in Palestine. Should he allow Negroes to eat at bis place, he would lose many white clients; should the owner of a house let apartments to Negroes, the price of his estate — and all estates in the neighbourhood — would fall. Should such a danger arise, all estate agents would appeal to the racial pride of the public, organise demonstrations and shout high-minded slogans to save the estate prices. It is true that this treatment of the Negro is against the spirit and the letter of the Constitution and it is true that the Constitution is sacred. But the Dollar is more sacred. High should be our reverence for the Constitution; but estate prices should be higher.»
Going back a bit further, de Toqueville in 1834:
ReplyDelete«I said to someone who lived in Pennsylvania: "Kindly explain to me how, in a state founded by Quakers and celebrated for its tolerance, free Negroes are not allowed to exercise their civil rights. They pay their taxes; is it not fair that they should have the vote?"
"You insult us," he replied, "if you imagine that our legislators committed such a gross act of injustice and intolerance."
"Thus the blacks possess the right to vote in this country?"
"Without any doubt."
"So, how does it come about that at the polling-booth this morning I did not notice a single Negro in the crowd?"
"That is not the fault of the law," said the American to me. "It is true that the Negroes have the right to participate in the elections but they voluntarily abstain from making an appearance."
"That is indeed very modest of them."
"It is not that they are refusing to attend, but they are afraid of being mistreated. In this country it sometimes happens that the law lacks any force when the majority does not support it. Now, the majority is imbued with the strongest of prejudices against the blacks and the magistrates feel they do not have enough strength to guarantee the rights which the legislator has conferred upon them."
"So you mean that the majority, which has the privilege of enacting the laws, also wishes to enjoy the privilege of disobeying them?"»
Gunnar Myrdal's An American Dilemma is a classic work strangely enough about current events. I read it decades ago. From what I recall, he is easily able to get whites to tell him that America is a land of opportunity, that people are able to earn their place by merit and hard work, and that it does not provide these opportunities for Blacks. That is, Myrdal finds that some will quickly contradict themselves when talking about these abstract things. He seemed to think that this tension will drive change.
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