Congressional Black Caucus Remarks at the Caucus' Annual Dinner.

Chairman Parren Mitchell, Vice Chairperson Shirley Chisholm, members of the Black Caucus, distinguished black religious leaders from all over the Nation, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters:

I think in the last 2 days, everybody knows how I stand on the Hawkins-Humphrey full employment bill. And I want to make sure that the chairman of the Black Caucus is with us. So, I brought tonight a big button that says, "Justice Through Jobs, Pass Humphrey-Hawkins, Sponsored by the National Council of Churches." I want to make sure that Parren Mitchell wears this, too.

This is a great evening—two hotels full of great Americans who believe in progress, who have proven it, sometimes at the risk of your own lives, who know the greatness of our country, believe it can be even greater. Gus Hawkins is here. He met me outside. And he's one of those who has had the sensitivity and the tenacity, the influence in the Congress to make great progress on a bill in which we are all interested.

There's another great man who worked with him who couldn't be here tonight. Of all the white men I've ever known, he was closest to the black people of our country. Of all the druggists I've ever known, he was closest to being a preacher, and that's Senator Hubert Humphrey. He was one of those, like you and like myself, who didn't believe in the trickle-down theory of government services.

There are a lot of definitions of that. I think Senator Humphrey had the best. He said the Republican theory, the trickle-down theory, was if you feed a horse enough oats, eventually the sparrows will have something to eat. [Laughter] But those of you who are assembled tonight in this tremendous audience, the biggest in history for a Black Caucus banquet, I and my administration are trying to put an end to the trickle-down theory.

I'm very grateful that tonight we are honoring the black churches. As all of you may know, I grew up in the South. [Laughter] And I've seen from my earliest days a remarkable demonstration of the interrelationship, within the black churches, of a courageous stand for spiritual progress and a courageous stand for the progress of material things—a person's body, an end to embarrassment through racism, an end to poverty, an end to hunger, an end to the war between people in a country, an end to a war between people in different countries. This is the kind of thing that has always been held high as a commitment of the great black leaders of our Nation. Martin Luther King, Jr., was the most famous, a man who inspired us all. But he was one among many during the time of his life, and he inspired many who have come along since him.

I'm not a preacher; I'm a farmer. But I thought this evening it might be good-I tried to think of a theme for my talk, which is going to be fairly brief—but I thought if you wouldn't mind, I would use a text— [laughter] —that would signify very clearly what I want to talk about tonight.

This comes from the 25th Chapter of Matthew, the words of Jesus talking about a king: "Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, unto everlasting fire, prepared for he devil and his angels: For I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; I was naked, and ye clothed me not; and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or imprisoned, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away unto everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal."

The Black Caucus who serve in Congress, still in the minority, have been inspired to courageous action, unity in the face of pressure, tenacity in the face of discouragement, because they believe in these principles. And they see themselves uniquely responsible not only for all Americans but particularly for those who have been hungry and thirsty and alone and in prison and naked.

This has given them strength to carry on in the tradition of the great black leaders of this Nation who have held high a banner which has made us all sometimes ashamed and then proud of our achievements together.

The American Government is one of the greatest institutions on Earth, an institution that is lumbering on occasion, frustrating on occasion, confused on occasion. But it derives its strength and it derives its direction in a time of crisis from those who are strong willed and whose commitments never falter and whose aims are sure and whose goals are clear.

I've been in office 20 months, in the highest elected office, perhaps, in the whole world. And I have forged to my own benefit as President, to the benefit of those in the minority in this country, and to the benefit of all American people, a good alliance with the members of the Black Caucus, and I'm thankful for it.

When I took office a few months ago, our country had the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression. Ten million Americans could not find a full-time job; 7 million Americans couldn't find any job at all. The unemployment rate was 8 percent. And we started working together, the Congress and I and many of you who are not in government. We've added a net of 6 1/2 million jobs; we've cut the unemployment rate 25 percent; we've allotted 6 billion new dollars for youth employment; we've tripled CETA jobs; we've doubled Job Corps jobs; we've quit making poor people pay for food stamps. We've made some progress.

We've made some progress, but we can't afford to rest on our laurels, because Gus Hawkins, Hubert Humphrey, the members of the Black Caucus knew and still know that we can never stop moving toward full employment until every man and every woman in the United States who's able and willing to have a job has a job. And I'm determined to see this bill passed this year, because I don't want to hear the unemployed child or man with a dependent family cry out this verse, "Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me."

Twenty months ago, when a Democratic administration came in after 8 years, the civil rights laws that you had struggled and suffered to have passed were being unenforced. They laid dormant. Tens of thousands of cases that had been presented to your Government had not been heard. There was no administrative thrust behind them. Government contracts-your tax money being spent for good projects-never found a black contractor to fill the need for work; bank deposits avoided the black-owned banks. Women were still deprived of a basic constitutional right for equality.

We had court cases coming along—the Bakke case, challenging the right to consider race in admission to colleges, with far-reaching impact that might have condemned absolutely the affirmative action commitment of us all. And people like Drew Days and Eleanor Holmes Norton worked with many of us to bring about improvements in employment opportunities.

We still have a long way to go. And I predict to you that next week, the bill that will extend the constitutional amendment time for the equal rights amendment will pass the Senate, and we'll still have a chance in our country to give women the same basic constitutional right that the rest of us have.

Human services were neglected for 8 years. Educational funds were not focused on a poor child, a child whose parents were illiterate because they never had a chance to get an education. We know what Lyndon Johnson tried to do in 1965 with the Elementary and Secondary Acts, the Higher Education Acts. But those had not been realized in their dreams. And this year, we have increased funds allotted for educational programs focused on those who need it most, more than any time in the history of our country, including even those .great days when Lyndon Johnson was President.

And Pat Harris has seen very clearly that our central cities were deteriorating. Housing was absent. And she and I and Mary Berry and the Black Caucus and many of you have worked to correct these defects in our society. We now have an urban policy that will let us have better cities where the poor people live. We're determined to carry it through. We're working together. We'11 never change our commitment.

We also saw a silent robbing of those who live on fixed incomes, who have a small pension, who live on slowly changing welfare payments, who have a parttime job. We inherited a very high inflation rate. For 10 solid years, inflation has been too high. Waste in government was robbing us all. Deficit spending was caused by inefficiency.

We've tried to make the government more responsive to meet people's needs at the delivery end of the cycle, because you've never seen a hungry child fed with waste or educated with inefficiency. You've never seen a house built with a cumbersome bureaucracy, and you've never seen people's needs met with everincreasing Federal deficits to put a burden on us all.

And Bill Beckham in the Treasury Department, Bunny Mitchell and Louis Martin in the White House, the Black Caucus, and you and I have moved to correct these deficiencies. We've got a long way to go. Inflation is still with us. But together, I believe that we can turn that corner and let people have a stable and a predictable and a sure future.

We inherited, also, the aftermath of the Vietnam war, a war that was distorted because it was waged against people far away, whose skins were yellow. Our draft laws, the policy of the Department of the Army and others, had been oriented to draft and send overseas the poor and the black who couldn't afford to send their sons to college.

Our country had a consciousness that we were not committed to the purity of peace; we were committed to the filth of war. Now we've changed that attitude. Clifford Alexander is now the great Secretary of the Army, and we are staying strong to preserve the peace. But we've also got a fine leader of the Peace Corps, Carolyn Payton. And we're trying to extend the influence of our country in a beneficent way, not a condemnatory way throughout the world.

I'd like to mention one other thing that concerns me, because this is one of the greatest defects that our country has sustained for a full 200 years, and that is a foreign policy that was misapplied. As I said to the Democratic fundraiser early this week, as a Governor of Georgia, as a candidate for President, I used to shrink up and dread the day each fall when the United Nations General Assembly began its deliberations, because I knew that my country, which I love, would be the target of every attack and the butt of every joke among two-thirds of the nations on Earth.

We were despised and condemned by the small nations, the new nations, the weak nations, the nations whose people were black or brown or yellow. We had ignored the great continent of Africa. Our Nation had espoused and supported racist regimes, dictatorships. Our own Secretary of State was not permitted to go into Nigeria 3 or 4 years agoras you know, one of the greatest nations on Earth, with about a hundred million people and great wealth, very influential.

But now I don't dread to see the General Assembly called to order, because we've got new friends all over the world. And they've been brought to our side not by me, although my commitment is there, but by people like Terry Todman, Don McHenry, and a man who's not afraid to speak out when he sees something wrong, Andy Young.

The General Assembly is in session now, you know. Is Andy Young here tonight? He's a Black Caucus member, and he's a preacher. [Laughter]

Well, let me tell you this: I don't know of anyone who serves in the administration of Jimmy Carter who has done more for our country throughout the world than Andy Young. [Applause] And one other comment—I was going to make it even if you hadn't stood up— [laughter] -as long as I'm President and Andy Young is willing to stay there, he'll be the United Nations Ambassador.

There are a lot of other people I could mention. I spoke to this group last year, and there was a lonely sign down in front that said, "Thank you, Mr. President, for endorsing D.C. voting rights." But I don't believe anybody felt at that time that a year later the Congress would have passed overwhelmingly, both bodies, a constitutional amendment to give those rights.

And I'd like to recognize and thank Walter Fauntroy for his tremendous leadership, Clarence Mitchell, our 101st Senator, and three members of the Black Caucus who will, unfortunately, be retiring this year: Barbara Jordan, who electrified our country, who inspired the world with her great address at the Democratic National Convention, when I was nominated; Congressman Bob Nix, who was the leader, who's getting the civil service reform bill through the Congress this year—one of the great achievements of all times; and Yvonne Burke, who's going to be the next attorney general of California.

Well, let me close by saying that some people criticize you and me, and it's an honor when they do. [Laughter] Some people say we are too impatient. Do you think we're too impatient?

AUDIENCE. No.

THE PRESIDENT. Some people say we are too ambitious for those that we care about. But I don't believe we're too ambitious. Some people say—and you've heard it many times—"They are never satisfied." [Laughter] But can we afford to be satisfied when we've got hundreds of thousands of young black men walking the streets looking for a job?

AUDIENCE. No.

THE PRESIDENT. Can we afford to be satisfied when our cities are crumbling and particularly those areas where poor people live and are at the mercy of landlords who don't care about them, often, and who need our help?

AUDIENCE. No.

THE PRESIDENT. Right. Can we afford to be satisfied when we have literally millions of young people still struggling for an adequate education because they can't speak English well or because their parents never had a chance to learn?

AUDIENCE. No.

THE PRESIDENT. No, we can't.

Can we afford to be satisfied when we're still spending more on nuclear weapons than we are on peace?

AUDIENCE. NO.

THE PRESIDENT. Can we afford to be satisfied when we realize that for many people, even in our own country, equality is still just a dream?

No, we cannot afford to be satisfied. I'm proud that you and I are able to walk together. I'm proud of the partnership that binds us, one to another. I'm proud of a recognition of unrecognized and unfulfilled dreams. I'm proud to share with you experience of the past when progress has been made. I'm proud to know people in this audience who have exhibited, even in a position of prominence, a great sensitivity and love for those who yearn for a better life.

There's a person here who helped to begin this movement, and I don't even need to call her name. She's a woman who refused to sit in the back of a bus. And her name is Rosa Parks. She's here. Where is she?

Rosa Parks, would you come up here? In the midst of that historic event that began the Montgomery bus boycott, Martin Luther King, Jr., came up to an old woman, and he was concerned about her strenuous effort to correct the deprivation of human rights. And he said, "Honey, aren't you tired and worn out?" She said, "My feet are tired, but my soul is rested."

Well, we've got a long way to walk in the future. We'll walk together. Our feet may be tired, but when we get through, our soul will be rested.

Thank you very much.