Statement by the President in Response to Report Reviewing Gains in Government Employment of Minority Groups.
THIS PROGRESS is the result of affirmative and persistent efforts by the Federal agencies to hire, train, and promote on the basis of merit alone, without consideration of irrelevancies such as race or ancestry. It shows that it is possible to sweep away the customs and practices that have denied productive lives to many minority Americans. It demonstrates that there are, in truth, qualified persons from all races and regions who are available to fill posts of responsibility with dignity and competence. Our continued strength depends on our redoubled efforts to insure that the skills and potential of all our people are utilized effectively in the pursuit of our national goals.
Note: The statement was part of a White House release summarizing the report of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. The report, a series of related studies in tabular form with the overall title "Study of Minority Group Employment in the Federal Government," was prepared for the Committee by the U.S. Civil Service Commission (109 pp., Government Printing Office, 1964)-
The release stated that the report disclosed that minority Americans were increasingly being utilized in the Federal civil service. For the .third successive year the annual minority census taken in June showed major changes in the number of Negroes and other minorities in middle and upper grade jobs. These advances were made despite a drop in overall minority employment in line with the general cutback in Government employment. Similar gains occurred in Negro employment in the upper levels of the blue collar, postal, and other pay categories. The release concluded by stating that the pattern of progress was quite similar for other minority groups, Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Indians, and Oriental-Americans.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President in Response to Report Reviewing Gains in Government Employment of Minority Groups. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/241270