That this nation come to grips with the immediate and pressing need to enforce federal statutes and Court decisions which mandate an end to racial discrimination.

Lyndon Johnson said it very well:

"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.

"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, and 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 liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, 'You are free to compete with all the others [many of whom have been riding on your back for years], and still justly believe that you have been completely fair."

In my judgement, the record is transpicuously clear, the nation, its institutions and those who made the decisions to grant or deny opportunity have been grossly unfair to those persons who have suffered from the real affirmative discrimination, both past and present, in American society. And we know that the mere enactment of Congressional legislation, or the issuance of a Presidential Executive Order is not enough. An Act, in and of itself, is not the essence of reform. Laws and Orders are not yet self-executing.

We must remind the nation and its institutions that Congress was not colorblind when it enacted the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution. We must insist that the country recognize that the United States Supreme Court was talking about Black people and racial discrimination when it pronounced the Brown decision in 1954.

Too many persons, many of whom are federal and state officials, elected or appointed to many of the most responsible positions in this country, would lead us to abandon the efforts which began to show some positive results during the Martin King era.

What we hear today in Boston and Chicago and Detroit and Louisville and Washington is a plea to an outdated sentiment and an appeal to ignorance. We hear politicians saying along with the rabble and the hatemongers that to enforce rules which would provide quality education, quality housing, equal employment and social justice would be to punish the white people of America. The deep-down prejudices of too many people are being dragged to the surface and in the process submerging rational consideration and thought and understanding. What we face today is not only the same fight we have been waging for years, but the additional task of informing Americans that to obey the law of the land is not punishment, but freedom! We must inform America that true educational opportunity is not found on the speedometer of a school bus. In many districts, in fact, the amount of bussing formerly used to maintain segregated schools. We are asking the nation as a whole to unite. We have said to the country that unless we face the opportunities and the problems as a nation, willing to share and solve, we shall surely all share in a future of greater chaos and deterioration.

I, for one, am convinced that this country needs only the will to eliminate poverty. It is a matter of priorities and it is a matter of honesty. This nation has the means. We have both the human and physical resources.

Shall we as a nation continue to confound the issues?

Shall we send rockets to Venus or feed the poor?

Shall we send moon stations to outer space or repair our cities?

Shall we engage in another unnecessary and stupid war or build needed schools?

Shall we build airplanes that won't fly or shall we build hospitals?