Civil Rights
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Television interview in the WTTG studios of the Metromedia Television Network
I think that we are also seeing a resurgence of extremism in the Northern communities. When we start to move in these areas, civil rights make some people uncomfortable, because things are not the same as they have always been.
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Address at the American Jewish Congress, New York City
It is the ideal of freedom which underlies our great concern for civil rights. Nations around the world look to us for leadership not merely by strength of arms but by the strength of our convictions. We not only want, but we need, the free exercise of rights by every American. We need the strength…
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Address at the National Newspaper Publishers Association, Morgan State College, Baltimore, Maryland
Our newspapers must be free to report every facet of American life for this is not only a freedom guaranteed to them but a guarantee of freedom for all Americans.
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Television interview in the WTTG studios of the Metromedia Television Network
I think that some of the demonstrations have weakened the position of those who advocate a particular cause.
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Address at Kentucky’s Centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, Freedom Hall, Louisville, Kentucky
It is one thing to open the schools to all children regardless of race. It is another to train the teachers, to build the classrooms, and to attempt to eliminate the effects of past educational deficiencies. It is still another to find ways to feed the incentive to learn and keep children in school.
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Speech at the Dedication of the John F. Kennedy Interfaith Chapel at West Georgia College in Carrollton, Georgia
The energy which causes people from all sections of the United States to strive for fulfillment of the pledges of the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation is essentially moral energy, and it has no end.
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Speech at the Dedication of the John F. Kennedy Interfaith Chapel at West Georgia College in Carrollton, Georgia
By the efforts of 1963–64, in which I am so proud to have played a part, we have gone a long way towards redeeming the pledges upon which this Republic was founded—pledges that all are created equal, that they are endowed equally with unalienable rights and are entitled to equal opportunity in the pursuit of…
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Speech at the Opening of Exhibit on the Emancipation Proclamation at The National Archives in Washington, D.C.
We have had a great deal of talk in this country in the past one hundred years about equality. Deeds, not talk, are what is needed. It is only relatively recently that we as a nation have again gathered our strength, our will, and our determination to act boldly and vigorously to lift from all…
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Speech at the Ceremonies Celebrating the 175th Anniversary of the Ratification of the Constitution, Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Now as always, when the Constitution is too narrowly interpreted on a word-for-word basis, it can too easily become a crutch for reaction, a reactionalization, an excuse for maintaining the status quo.
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Address at the Day of Affirmation at the University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of…
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Address at the Dinner Honoring Congressman James C. Corman at the Sportsmen’s Lodge, Los Angeles, California
As attorney general, I found crime to be, with civil rights, one of our two most serious domestic problems. The crime rate rises by seven percent a year, there is a robbery every five minutes, an aggravated assault every three minutes, a car stolen every minute.
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