delivered 11 June 1963
Good
evening, my fellow citizens:
This afternoon, following a series of threats
and defiant statements, the presence of Alabama National Guardsmen was required
on the University of Alabama to carry out the final and unequivocal order of the
United States District Court of the Northern District of Alabama. That order
called for the admission of two clearly qualified young Alabama residents who
happened to have been born Negro. That they were admitted peacefully on the
campus is due in good measure to the conduct of the students of the University
of Alabama, who met their responsibilities in a constructive
way.
I hope that every American, regardless
of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other
related incidents. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and
backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and
that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are
threatened.
Today, we are committed to a worldwide
struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. And when
Americans are sent to Vietnam or West Berlin, we do not ask for whites only. It
ought to be possible, therefore, for American students of any color to attend
any public institution they select without having to be backed up by troops. It
ought to to be possible for American consumers of any color to receive equal
service in places of public accommodation, such as hotels and restaurants and
theaters and retail stores, without being forced to resort to demonstrations in
the street, and it ought to be possible for American citizens of any color to
register and to vote in a free election without interference or fear of
reprisal. It ought to to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the
privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color. In short,
every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be
treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. But this is not the
case.
The Negro baby born in America today,
regardless of the section of the State in which he is born, has about one-half
as much chance of completing a high school as a white baby born in the same
place on the same day, one-third as much chance of completing college, one-third
as much chance of becoming a professional man, twice as much chance of becoming
unemployed, about one-seventh as much chance of earning $10,000 a year, a life
expectancy which is 7 years shorter, and the prospects of earning only half as
much.
This is not a sectional issue.
Difficulties over segregation and discrimination exist in every city, in every
State of the Union, producing in many cities a rising tide of discontent that
threatens the public safety. Nor is this a partisan issue. In a time of domestic
crisis men of good will and generosity should be able to unite regardless of
party or politics. This is not even a legal or legislative issue alone. It is
better to settle these matters in the courts than on the streets, and new laws
are needed at every level, but law alone cannot make men see right. We are
confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and is
as clear as the American Constitution.
The heart of the question is whether all
Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we
are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated. If an
American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the
public, if he cannot send his children to the best public school available, if
he cannot vote for the public officials who will represent him, if, in short, he
cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us
would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place?
Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and
delay?
One hundred years of delay have passed
since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are
not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. They are not
yet freed from social and economic oppression. And this Nation, for all its
hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are
free.
We preach freedom around the world, and
we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the
world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is the land of the
free except for the Negroes; that we have no second-class citizens except
Negroes; that we have no class or caste system, no ghettoes, no master race
except with respect to Negroes?
Now the time has come for this Nation to
fulfill its promise. The events in Birmingham and elsewhere have so increased
the cries for equality that no city or State or legislative body can prudently
choose to ignore them. The fires of frustration and discord are burning in every
city, North and South, where legal remedies are not at hand. Redress is sought
in the streets, in demonstrations, parades, and protests which create tensions
and threaten violence and threaten lives.
We face, therefore, a moral crisis as a
country and a people. It cannot be met by repressive police action. It cannot be
left to increased demonstrations in the streets. It cannot be quieted by token
moves or talk. It is a time to act in the Congress, in your State and local
legislative body and, above all, in all of our daily lives. It is not enough to
pin the blame on others, to say this a problem of one section of the country or
another, or deplore the facts that we face. A great change is at hand, and our
task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and
constructive for all. Those who do nothing are inviting shame, as well as
violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right, as well as
reality.
Click here for the entirety of the speech - http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkcivilrights.htm
This was a day to be very proud of America. People of all races throughout the world celebrated the U.S. on this day. Even poor African village families that had very little else hung pictures of our president in their mud huts. During the early years of the Vietnam conflict as North Vietnam fought against South Vietnam, in the name of defeating oppressive colonialism, North Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh and his followers cheered our planes believing that we would be there to support them in their quest for freedom from that historical colonialism because Kennedy in his speeches expressed an understanding that they wanted their freedom much more than communism.
A little insight and a sense of justice shined above political expediancy. A little love shined for our fellow man.
And I think of what could have been.
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