In the last five or six years, the white people have looked at the black people and said, “Look at all we have done. We passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We passed the [Voting] Rights Act of 1965.”

“A Negro has been appointed to the Supreme Court. A Negro has been appointed to the cabinet. We passed the poverty program. We’ve done all of these things. And we spent all of this money; and yet there are riots in the cities. And there’s lawlessness. And there’s violence. And there is looting. Don’t the black people understand what we’ve tried to do and that we’ve made this commitment and can’t they be satisfied?”

The black person, on the other hand, says “that’s all fine for Mr. Weaver who’s in the cabinet. And that’s fine for Mr. Marshall who’s on the Supreme Court. And that’s fine for the civil rights bills that have been passed. But none of that has any effect on my life. The fact is my children still go to substandard schools. The fact is my husband can’t get a job. That fact is that I can’t get welfare unless I divorce my husband and my children are illegitimate.”

The fact is that the housing is substandard and becoming more substandard. And the fact is, as the Kerner commission and the Riot Commission reported, the conditions in the ghetto and the conditions for the poor are getting worse, not better.

So that just to have the black people understand the fact that white people want to do what is right and feel that they have taken steps may not be sufficient. But basically there is this [need] of generosity and compassion to have the white people understand that the conditions are still very difficult for black people.