last month the National Urban League Released a major study. the state of Black America that study documents the continued erosion of black living conditions and the widening gap between black and white Americans. The hopes raised by the Civil Rights victories of the sixties wither away. in the 1970s a time of economic stagnation racial antagonism and the national indifference to the plight of the pool. Black people enter the 1980s space with a popular. Myth black progress has been so significant further National concern is not necessary. As a state of Black America report documents many black people did make considerable progress. The decade of the 1970s did see blacks moving into jobs and homes and school shoes previously denied them. But as that document also reports the few who made game. Are vastly outnumbered by the masses of black people whose lives in the 1970s became harder whose prospects became demo and whose unmet needs became greater. In Everett area about National Life black people remain grossly. disadvantaged And jobs we are twice as likely as whites to be in low-paid low-skill jobs and less than half as likely as whites to be in the jobs that count in America. Unemployment rates are two and a half time those for white workers. We've got higher unemployment today than when we marched on Washington for jobs and freedom and 1963. We have a higher unemployment rate today than we had one Brown versus Board of Education was handed down in 1954 and then come that black middle-class you've heard so much about comes to barely a tenth of all black families and even they are earning middle class incomes because they've got two or more family members working something that can Outlast out a recession. Median black family income is only 57%. For white lower than it was and 19. 66 and education we've heard a lot about all of the blocks that attending college and that is true. But we don't he is that the majority of black youngsters attending college or in two year community colleges by the most of the whites are in four year colleges and put them on Career ladders and Nod to blocks. And housing for more blacks and whites live in deficient housing blocks pay more for Less housing than whites. It recent HUD study documents the continued strength of housing discrimination in Congress still has not put teeth in the fair housing act a 19. 68 I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia the South and therefore I'm accustomed to cross burnings and fences and demonstrations about housing but one measurement attitude of housing. Is that in Northern liberal, New York? Westchester County when a black man who works 5 p.m. Save this money and gets a mortgage and purchases a house before he can sleep in it 8 hours a night. It is bombed and destroyed an injury. Confronts his family. So as we begin the 1980s. And 26 years after Brown vs. Board of Education said that segregation is inherently unequal. And as you begin this Afro-American history week. Here at Carleton College. It is clear to me. The black progress has been Limited. It is clear to me that black people in America remain disadvantaged. It is clear to me. That race continues to be a major determining factor in our society as we begin the 1980. And as we assess black progress. from Pleasant v Ferguson to Shelley vs. Kraemer to Brown versus Board of Education It is clear to me. For all of the progress some of us in the black community of made half of all black people in this country a book people without boats. Cast adrift on a hostile ocean of discrimination unemployment and poverty as we begin the 1980s black people cannot be satisfied with talk of progress. For black people. Do not measure progress by how far we've come we measure progress. By how far we have to go and progress is no substitute for full. equality The 1980s must be a decade in The Witcher black people finally and ultimately enjoy full equality. This is a goal. That should be shared by all Americans because the strength of America is dependent on a United citizen re-sharing the rewards and responsibilities of the society in which we all live. To the degree that racism poverty and racial based in Justice and Equity exist. America is weakened. That is an important issue in 1980. Infonetics hold Americans hostage in Tehran and when Russians march across borders in Afghanistan Americans feel rightly threatened. The response we fashion to those external threats. Must be appropriate to the realities of the international situation and consistent with the important domestic priorities. the deteriorating International situation has resulted in calls for a renewed Cold War and increased military spending. And what bothers me about that and what bothers me about the president's State of the Union Address is that the same people who charge that social problems cannot be solved by throwing money at them are the same people who want to solve International Problems by throwing money at the Pentagon. Indeed America needs a strong lean defense posture support that but domestic security is as much a matter of domestic strength. as of military might it was Harry Truman who said that the best foreign policy is a strong domestic policy. The nation's images must not focus on defense for the next Black the racial equality Full Employment and urban revitalization. The inevitable result for such a lopsided approach is further deterioration in the living conditions of black people and poor people and other Menard. I know that the state of Black America can be never be better than the state of America that the well-being of black people is dependent on the well-being of the total Society. But I also know that the Spate of America is interwoven and intertwined with the state of Black America. Our nation can never be strong economically healthy and Jeff but long as the human resources of its black citizens are neglected and deed the well-being of Black America is indispensable. To the well-being of America. I recognize the near-term resistance to that proposition. I know full well that the spirit of the March on Washington has been replaced by the spirit of Proposition 13. I know that it is less popular to Advocate the needs of the poor man to Advocate the desires of the powerful evidence for that is easier to find we see it in the proposed budget that effectively freezes spending on social initiatives while escalating military procurement. We see it in the administration's economic report predicts a continued sluggish economy with both hind employment and high inflation. We see it in the Shameless abandonment. By this administration of the humphrey-hawkins mandate to slash unemployment rates and we see it in the course of a presidential campaign and which the candidates cluster to the center right of the political Spectrum. Why won't the candidates running for president come forward with Progressive vision for America's domestic future. Not one of the candidates has come forward with a plan to ensure full employment a national health policy is barely mentioned. No one wants to come near the issue of real welfare reform and the only candidate to even mention affirmative action condemned it. There was a Time in America when candidates offered Vision to voters instead of pandering to their prejudice. But this year the rhetoric has been confined to a narrow span to the right of the positions taken by Menards and liberals in this country. This rightward shift in American politics deprives vast numbers of Americans of significant choices and it threatens our efforts to make our nation more responsive to the needs and aspirations of its neglected citizens. The thrust to the political right? represents a cynical reading of the electorate it reflects the assessment that the black vote does not count. That work goes will continue to put up with a decline in real living standards and that the tile cutters in the majority. It suggests to that some politicians feel that they are more votes and appeals to selfish and Trust van in the pills that tap the idealism and aspirations of the American people. That assessment will severely damaged minardi people unless we prove it wrong and the way to prove it wrong is to get every eligible minority person registered and voting in 1980. The black community is often pointed to the facts fact, the black votes in key States put Jimmy Carter into the White House in 1976. Let's those of you doing political analysis on doubt. I would like to reassure you that the march from Selma to Montgomery did not end in the summer on the spring of 1965 and it did not end at the state capitol in Montgomery. the march from Selma to Montgomery culminated on the evening of November 2nd 1976 Alpine kiting Chancellor call Lynn the vote for Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas and the difference it made the electoral votes go for Jimmy Carter. with those boats a black people we were in fact the difference. If you look at the 11 states of the old Confederacy. You will see that Jimmy Carter got 45% of the white vote. Gerald Ford got 55% of the white vote. But Jimmy Carter carried all of those States and the difference in the 45% in the 55% with us black people. Proving the theory that hands that picked cotton. Could one day. Pick a president. And we did it in November. 1976 and that was a lot written about it and we took a lot of credit for it. But the fact is and that same year and that same election half of the eligible black people in this country never voted. So even when we made the difference, Half of those of us who are eligible to vote. Did not vote. And minority voting figures move sharply down within presidential election years. Now the issue of non-participation in our electoral process is an issue. In fact, the transitions rates 7th and million people did not vote in the presidential election of 1976 and a hundred million did not vote in the Congressional elections of 1978. So the issue is not just about us. It's also about you. Participating in the political process, but we don't have the power. We don't have the wealth. What is demonstrated in 1976 we do have the numbers unless I'm an artist can harness that potential voting numbers and fashion them into a powerful political weapon. We will continue to be either ignored or taken for granted by candidates of both parties in a large enough jumping minority voter rolls. We believe what I believe on 4th candidates to deal for square with issues, like full employment energy protection of the pool real welfare and health reform. We saw this happen in my native South after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed. Old Line segregationists were suddenly campaigning in black neighborhoods Paving ghetto streets and dedicating new housing project. Now, I'll show you that it was not that there racial attitude that change it was that there are arithmetic had changed when black voters went from 1% of the electric to 31% of the electric those same segregationist who went from never Canal without a second thought I remember the youngster growing up in Atlanta. When may a Hartsfield who had a national reputation for being a liberal mayor at Atlanta airport is named for him. And I can remember as a youngster one bill Hartsfield will say on WSB in Atlanta that it will be a cold day in Hell before he would go to any black church asking anybody did NAACP to Urban League of the preachers of the lawyers are the college president for black votes. He said it would be a cold day in Hell before he did it. Shortly after that statement the local n-double-acp organize the voter registration campaign and in a 6 week. Added 10,000 new black voters to the registration role in the seventh weak-mayor Hartsfield was in the Wheat Street Baptist church singing Amazing Grace a common meter. 1980 is the year. In which that same process has to be duplicated on a national scale a massive increase in the minority vote will pay off candidates voters and the more voters we can muster the more politicians will use their arithmetic skills to count the numbers of unemployed and the numbers on the paychecks of working people. We've got to make the 1980s decade in which black people other Menards is imposed people finally. Enjoy full equality. We've got to organize behind an agenda for the 1980s and agenda that includes a national full employment policy a massive drive for affirmative action and all aspects of our national life a National Youth Development policy that gives hope and skills to young people denied both and National Health policy that ensures high quality healthcare for everybody without regard to race sex age or geography and the housing program. That is she was a decent living environment for everybody. Those and other major steps must be epic or about agenda for the 1980s. What you must understand about the black agenda for the 1980s. Is that the black agenda for the eighth is transcend race sex and region. It is black only in the sense that black people are disproportionately pull. Our agenda is directed at helping all of America's pull dispossessed and depriving citizens most of Puma white. We want welfare reform for us. But we also wanted for white people because contrary to what most of my conservative friends say, the vast majority of people in this country was leaving welfare checks are not black people than white people. We don't want to We don't want to save the city's just for us. Because if Cleveland goes into the lake. Republic Steel goes into the lake go to the heart of any major American city. You see tall tall building. We can't pay the rent. You see big huge hotels and motels. We can't pay the room rent and you see terrific fine gourmet restaurants and we cannot pay the check. So Urban revitalization is as much and white interests. You cannot McCain. Otherwise as it is and black interest. So I'm suggesting to you that the Black Agenda transcend race. It is an agenda that is in the National interest and agenda that will make America a stronger. detonation I believe we've got a lot of work ahead of us. I believe we've got to turn this nation around. I believe you got to call America back to its ideals and its noblest aspirations. I believe we've got the move America away from its selfish privatism and indifference and back to the morrow visions that can unite all Americans under the banner of an open pluralistic integrated Society. The Civil Rights struggles of the 50s and 60s concentrated on securing basic social and political rights. The struggles of the seven days were largely defensive limited to preserving the games we made. The 1980s however must be to secure parody between blacks and whites to remove race once and for all as a factor and the determination of the rewards and the responsibilities and also signed. I've been involved in this movement since the day that I graduated from law school. I graduated on Friday and was getting sick kids out of jail on Monday. So I am convinced the black people understand the struggle for equality. And we know that we have no choice, but to weather the storms ahead the storms a recession. The storms of rushing to increase the budget of the Pentagon that the cost of domestic initiatives racism and have an uncaring nation and we know that I'll days of sacrifice and struggle Ronaldo. But we also know that I'll struggle is for America's soul. We know that I'll struggle is one to revive the floundering moral principles about Nation. We have faith in America's ideals in her promises of equality and then her innate morality. without faith has been sorely tried and tested. It has been burned in the furnace of racial hatred. but always always black people have revived their faith in this nation and through the example and commitment America's faith in itself. I believe. That in the 1980s. America will come home to do what it must do. I believe that America can change in the 1980s because I have seen I have witnessed. I have participated in that change. I'm bad at the Martin my body. from that process and so I believe it. I believe it can chain. Because I remember 1951. as a junior in an old dilapidated ill-equipped segregated overcrowded run-down dilapidated David T Howard high school in Atlanta blacks in Atlanta didn't have a high school until 1926 and we got the second one in 1948. I went to the second one as did Martin Luther King and that's did Maynard Jackson. 1951 Georgia had a senator named Richard B Russell The 1951 Richard B. Russell had some illusions of grandeur. That he could be the president of these United States. And to kick off his campaign. That was to be a parade down Peachtree Street in Atlanta. And the superintendent of schools Ole Miss our generally called a call-out school principal. And told him to tell her I'll bandmaster. That he wanted the ban of the David T Howard High School to be at the corner of Baker and Peachtree Street. When Richard Russell's presidential parade came down the street and she wanted us there and she one of those blowing out horns and beat now drum. and that band was Maynard Jackson the mayor of Atlanta and myself and other I'm in the Band Master put the proposition to us. We said hell no, we won't go. But there is a certain reality had about growing up in the south. and we knew that if we didn't go that the bandmaster and the principal would be out of work fourth with so we went And we played our horns and we beat out drums in 1951 when Richard Russell drove down Peachtree Street in a Cadillac convertible. But a few years later. Frank sissom voter registration ends to the Voting Rights Act of 65 and some people sweating and Dawn and bleeding. Thanks, an old preacher named Primus King in Columbus, Georgia who filed a suit of King versus Chapman's overturn the white primary in, Georgia. Thanks to that. Maynard Jackson went from Peachtree and Baker playing his trombone for Richard Russell all the way to the city hall of Atlanta where he now coordinating directs the political Symphony of the community. I believe that America can change because I've seen it change. Birmingham Is a bad City? Known for its terrorism by the clan. And if you remember 1963 and Birmingham you remember the water hoses the cattle prod in the police dogs. and if you don't remember that about Birmingham you remember that September morning at the 16th Street Baptist Church when for little black girls in their Sunday school class. Never got home for dinner because somebody in Birmingham with the sanction of sitting state official Dynamite at 16th Street Baptist Church. But the other day in Birmingham thanks to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. young Ph.D named Richard, Arrington Was sworn in as mayor of Birmingham. It makes Atlanta's blackmail Palin significant and makes and significance and makes Dutch morial the mayor of New Orleans almost immaterial. It makes Tom Bradley in New Orleans in Los Angeles. Almost a footnote because when a black man can become mayor of Birmingham. I know that this nation can chain. therefore believe it 1960 as I said earlier, I returned to Atlanta. practice law my law partner young man named Horace T Ward Who in the 1950s with a bachelor's degree from Morehouse College and a master's degree in political science? From Atlanta University while he was a college teacher apply to the law school. at the University of Georgia He said I want to be a lawyer. I'm a citizen of this state. I got my tuition my parents own property. And so I want to go to the law school. The case was taken to the federal district court. judge Hoopa Rule that Horace Ward could not go to the University of Georgia law school because they did not take black people in the state law school. horis Ward didn't take no for an answer. And so having lost a suit he went to Northwestern law school with nurses sisters a student now. made order of the Court law review graduated with high distinction came back took the bar exam. pass the bar exam and in January of 1961 sat at the council table knocking on the door that was close to him for Hamilton Holmes and charlayne Hunter and through that mob Hart's War that scored at Hamilton Holmes, and I scored it Charlene Hunter. but shortly after that Horace Ward applied to be sworn into the federal district court and the same judge it had denied him and Mission. What the same judge? It had to swear men. But more significant or not. a month or so ago in Atlanta in that same courtroom what judge who put the nod horis Ward admission to the University of Georgia because he was black. And that same courtroom. Horis Ward was sworn in as a federal district judge to sit in the same courtroom. at the same bar of Justice And almost the same chair that judge Hooper set in when he said no and War can now sit there and say yes to Justice and equality and fairness. I believe that it can change because I've seen it change. How many quarts do it there now watch the others of us all we could say to each other was a god moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform. So I can't believe it can change and that it has to change. And so it changed. Amina Jackson it changed about Richard Arrington the mayor of Birmingham and it changed for Horace Ward. And it changed for me. But that is not what the movement is about. It is only important. When it changes for everybody. Democracy cannot be judged about the privilege of a few. Democracy must ultimately be judged. ultimately operate but all of those who are left out. I brought in the least of these. Those who look to you and to me based on what is an hour ahead and what we learning these Laboratories and then these classroom. That we can come out somehow come out. Putting together in the political process and make their lives a little better because they cry out from the rule places in the ghettos of this country asking me and you in the words of the old Negro spiritual is there no balm in Gilead. Is there no physician there? Those the bus. privilege by education affluence and economic status must answer Yes, there is a balm in Gilead. There is a physician there. We say with you those of you left out. Would Langston Hughes old let America be America again? The land that never has been yet and yet must be. The land where every man is free the Land that's mine. The poor man's Indians Negros me. Who made America? Who's sweating blood whose faith in pain whose hand at The Foundry who's plow in the rain? Must bring back. I might head dream again. Thank you very much.