If men do not build,” asks the poet, “how shall they live?”

That [is the] first question millions of men and women all over America ask themselves—ask us—every day; every day of idleness, every “day that follows day, with death the only goal.”

That is the question, indeed, of life in the American city in years to come…

The plight of the cities—the physical decay and human despair that pervades them—is the great internal problem of the American nation, a challenge which must be met. The peculiar genius of America has been its ability, in the face of such challenges, to summon all our resources of mind and body, to focus these resources, and our attention and effort, in whatever amount is necessary to solve the deepest and most resistant problems. That is the commitment and the spirit required in our cities today.

And that is the spirit of this community, the spirit that is here today. Bedford-Stuyvesant, like other areas in the great cities all over America, has serious problems. This is a community in which thousands of heads of families, and uncounted numbers of young people, sit in idleness and despair; a community with the highest infant mortality rate in the city, one of the highest in the nation; in which hundreds of buildings we abandoned to decay, while thousands of families crowd into inadequate apartments. This is also a community long bypassed and neglected by government, receiving almost nothing out of the hundreds of millions of dollars the federal government gave to the city over two decades, unable to secure a single urban-renewal grant in ten years of trying.

But for all of these difficulties, the spirit of Bedford-Stuyvesant has lived, the community survived…For the last eight months, I have had the privilege of seeing and working with [community leaders] at first hand.

Eight months ago, we found our views on the crisis before us to be in close correspondence. You through a manifesto of the Central Brooklyn Coordinating Council, and I in a series of speeches on the urban crisis, each proposed programs to meet this crisis in a comprehensive and coordinated effort, involving the resources and energies of government, of private industry, and of the community itself.

…We set our aim as a vital, expanding economy throughout the community-creating jobs in manufacturing and commerce and service industries.

On the basis of employment, we proposed the creation of new education opportunities of many kinds…And we urged the reconstruction of social services, and the integration with the rebuilding effort…

• Through the fabric of all program components, as I emphasized in cooperation with the private business community in self-sustaining economically viable enterprises;

• integration of programs for education, employment, and community development under a coordinated overall plan;

• and impetus and direction to be given in these efforts by the united strength of the community; working with private foundations, labor unions, and universities, in Community Development Corporation organized for this purpose…

But more important than any material component, you were determined that…these changes would happen, not by fiat from Washington, not from the work and effort of the Bedford-Stuyvesant community. You know that what is given or granted can be taken away, that is what is begged can be refused; but that what is earned is kept, that what is self-made is inalienable, that what you do for yourselves and for your children can never be taken away.

As a result of all this—the fruit of eight months of planning and argument and exchange of views…I have the honor to announce:

First: The formation of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Renewal and Rehabilitation Corporation…with a distinguished board representing many elements of the community. This corporation will assume a major role in the physical, social, and economic development of the community.

Second: To work in closest partnership with the Renewal and Rehabilitation Corporation, there is being formed a Bedford-Stuyvesant Development and Services Corporation. This corporation will involve, and draw on the talents and energies and knowledge of, some of the foremost members of the American business community…

Major private foundations have committed support to the development of Bedford-Stuyvesant…

Many other organizations and individuals are contributing their energy and talent to Bedford-Stuyvesant…

Efforts have begun to secure means of financing the necessary development. Use of government funds is being developed with relevant federal and city agencies, including those concerned with housing and urban matters, manpower development, and education. And major efforts to attract private capital are also projected…

It is a beginning. Bedford-Stuyvesant is on its way. That way, as I will stress again and again, it is not easy. It is complex and complicated and fraught with difficulty. Ahead of us are not weeks or months of work, no quick or easy triumphs—but long years of painful effort, with many setbacks, with constant temptations to relax, to give up, to stop trying…

To turn promise into performance, plan into reality…we must combine the best of community action with the best of the private enterprise system. Neither by itself is enough; but in their combination lies our hope for the future…

If there is to be any action, any true progress in a community, that community itself…must be prepared to take full and final responsibility for what happens—for the success or failure of any program…

But for all that community action can do, for all the talent and energy it may liberate, still it is not enough. For it does not give the power to act: not just to petition but itself to act to improve the lives of people…People may ask or even protest for better community services or quality goods in the stores, but concessions wrung from an unwilling bureaucrat Or absentee owner will never equal, in quality or permanence, the quality of service that can be created or bought by the united resources of a self-reliant community with the resources to act for itself.

The power to act is the power to command resources, of money and mind and skill: to build the housing, create the social and educational services, and buy the goods which this community wants for action, and needs and deserves. The regeneration of the Bedford-Stuyvesant community must rest, therefore, not only on community action but also on the acquisition and investment of substantial resources in this area. That is the importance and function of the Renewal and Rehabilitation Corporation and particularly of the Development and Services Corporation; to stimulate and facilitate the investment of resources from the private business community, in conjunction with foundation and government support, in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Such investment will have multiple benefits. It will help to build the housing and services which will make this a better place to live. And, by providing jobs for area residents, it will create a sound economic base-a foundation of self-government and dignity—for the entire community…not to ask others to act.

Private enterprise will invest in Bedford-Stuyvesant only if it can be assured that this community, acting as a unit, is prepared to deal with private capital on the businesslike basis; that it will and can, acting through a Renewal and Rehabilitation Corporation and the Development and Services Corporations, offer:

• a place to locate;

• people willing to work and learn;

• programs to train workers

• and all other services necessary to operate.

Government and foundations will only provide the needed incentive and support money if they know that programs are soundly conceived and operated; that important positions are assigned on no grounds other than merit; that there is no room here for political dealing, or for jobs to be regarded as anything but.

And if this is true for outside investment, it is even more true for the people of Bedford-Stuyvesant. The people of this area will be asked to make sacrifices—of time and convenience and effort. More importantly, Bedford-Stuyvesant wants to command its own destiny, and this will require direct investment by its own people. But if this is to take place, then the people must have faith in the programs and their leadership…

[There] is the need for cooperation between the community and all those—the businessmen, and the public officials, and the experts-who are joined with you in this effort. This community, in the last analysis, must do the job itself…

But at the same time, we will all have to listen and consider most carefully the advice , and the recommendations, and sometimes the absolute requirements, of others. If a government program requires a certain standard of operation, that standard must be maintained. If a businessman requires a certain kind of training program to help him offer jobs to people here, then that kind of training program must be devised. If banks require a certain kind of feature in a financing arrangement before they will make loans for housing, those arrangements must be satisfactorily made. If the city needs to coordinate efforts in Bedford-Stuyvesant with efforts elsewhere, then cooperation must be given…

What remains is the heart of the matter; and fulfillment will be the hardest past of the task. There will be times when progress seems ephemeral and fleeting, times of great disappointment and discouragement. Always there will be work—ceaseless, untiring effort, by none as much as the people in this room.

For this is a task of unparalleled difficulty. This is not just a question of making Bedford-Stuyvesant “as good as” someplace else. We are striking out in new directions, on new courses, sometimes perhaps without map or compass to guide us. We are going to try, as few have tried before, not just to have programs like others have, but to create new kinds of systems for education and health and employment and housing. We here are going to see, in fact, whether the city and its people, with the cooperation of government and private business and foundations, can meet the challenges of urban life in the last third of the twentieth century.

But if the dangers are great, and the challenges are great, so are the possibilities of greatness. In the last month, we have come to know one another well; and I believe that we can succeed, that we can fulfill the commitment, and thereby help others to do so.

And so let us go forward…