Civil Rights
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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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Speech at the Dedication of the John F. Kennedy Interfaith Chapel at West Georgia College in Carrollton, Georgia
We are today in the midst of a great debate, whether or not this nation, the champion of freedom throughout the world, can now extend full freedom to twenty million of our own citizens who have yet to achieve it. Passage of the Civil Rights Act is not an end to the debate. It only…
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Law Day Address, University of Georgia Law School, Athens, Georgia
You may ask, will we enforce the civil rights statutes?
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Address at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Banquet, New York
Reliance on government is dependence—and what the people of our ghettoes need is not greater dependence, but full independence; not the charity and favor of their fellow citizens, but equal claims of right and equal power to enforce those claims.
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Excerpt from Voice of America Broadcast
My grandfather came to this country many years ago. He was brought up in Boston and when he went out to look for a job there were signs on many stores that no Irish were wanted. Now after some 40 or 50 years, an Irish Catholic is President of the United States
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Speech at the Dedication of the John F. Kennedy Interfaith Chapel at West Georgia College in Carrollton, Georgia
Many voices, many views all have combined into an American consensus, and it has been a consensus of good sense. “In the multitude of counselors, there is safety,” says the Bible, and so it is with American democracy. Tolerance is an expression of trust in that consensus and each new enlargement of tolerance is an…
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Speech at the Ceremonies Celebrating the 175th Anniversary of the Ratification of the Constitution, Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Constitution of the United States, in a few thousand words, established a way of life that has built this Nation into greatness as the world’s leader and champion of freedom.
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