White House Reception for Black Ministers Remarks at the Reception.

I understand you've had a good day so far. If there's one thing I don't relish, it's trying to substitute for Coretta King and Andy Young and Jessie Jackson as a speaker. I might let Reverend Moss take my place up here; I know he'd do a better job. One thing that I think is good about people who lead congregations and lead larger groups than that, congregations of congregations, is that you have a chance to take your activism, your deep commitment, your experience and turn it into advice for people—a very precious possession that you have.

I tried to think of a story to illustrate this point. The only one I could think of was one that my pastor told not long ago about a young, very proud, very arrogant new preacher. His name was Reverend Quail. And he had a bishop whose name was Bishop Rice that he admired very much, and he wanted to make an impression on the bishop. So he went to see him and said, "Bishop Rice, I've noticed how revered you are by all those who know you, and I know how wonderful a man you are, and I just want to know how you get your knowledge and your experience, and the advice you give people is so profoundly important." And Bishop Rice recognized that the young man wanted a good assignment the next time change took place. [Laughter] So he said, "Young man, I'll tell you what I do." He said, "When I get a little bit down in the dumps and need some revelation, I remember that God made this world. And I try to escape from human beings' influence as much as I can and forget about human beings and go out and just be alone with God." And he said, "The best thing I've ever found is I can go out and just walk in the rain." He said, "I like to go out by myself alone, and not many people on the street, and I just turn my eyes up to the heaven and let the rain fall on my face." "Well," the Reverend Quail said, "I think I'll try that the next time it rains, Bishop Rice." [Laughter]

So 3 or 4 days later came a big heavy rain. It was kind of cold out there, and Reverend Quail went out and stood in the rain and looked up and it rained on him. He stood there a long time, not much happened. [Laughter] So he went back to see the bishop. He said, "Bishop Rice, I took your advice." And he said, "Ordinarily, your advice is very good, but I don't think it worked this time." He said, "Well, what happened?" He said, "I went out in the rain. I stood there and turned my face up to the heavens. It just beat on my face. I got cold. It ran all down my neck." He said, "I felt like a fool." And Bishop Rice said, "Well, how many revelations you want out of one rain?" [Laughter] Well, if you don't get anything else out of this meeting, you can take that story home and use it as you see fit.

This is a time for advice. It's time for turning to those who have leadership. It's a time for remembering what you mean to this country. As I have said many times, some of you have heard me say this before, I know of no other group in this Nation any more capable of combining God's will and your lifetime commitment with the education and the inspiration and the leadership of others than the black ministers of this land. When you see a hungry child, when you see a homeless family, when you see a lonely and destitute senior citizen, when you see a mind's not being developed, when you see deprivation around you, you remember the teachings of Christ. But you go further than that. You try to do something about it. And the activism that transformed the Southland and raised the spirits of this entire Nation and set an example for the whole world came from you, in my judgment.

And I've said also many times that had it not been for the courage of Rosa Parks and had it not been that Martin Luther King, Jr., was a minister who believed in the same principles that you espouse and exemplify in your own lives and transform this Nation, I would not be standing here as President, because you recognize the significance of change and the need for our Nation to look anew at itself. Our principles, our ideals, our Constitution are very good, but the practicalities of life and how judgments made by those in high places affected the people that you loved and who looked to you for leadership and guidance, not only spiritually but in a very closely related thing, in the human values of life which were also the teachings of Christ, that's what has made this country improve so much. It hasn't come far enough.

I've had your advice; it's been good advice, and I've taken it. In many cases the judgments that I've made, the decisions that I've made have originated with you and a few others like you around this country whom I trust and who have been partners with me. We've made some progress. I've had a chance to appoint judges to the Federal bench, places that had been closed after more than 200 years to black people. And we've got a long way to go. I've appointed twice as many black judges as all the other Presidents put together in the history of this country. But that's not enough. And when I look on what John Kennedy wanted and what Lyndon Johnson wanted, had the times permitted, I'm sure they would have done just as much or more.

And I look to the future, too, because we've now got food stamps so people don't have to have cash money to buy them. That was an idea that came from you all. And it's made it easier for those who've starved to eat. And we've had some economic setbacks in the last few years. The whole world has been shocked by high inflationary pressures. And we've added 8 1/2 million new jobs; 1.3 million of those that weren't available on January 20th, 1977, are now held by black people in this country; another million by Hispanic American people. We've tried to focus our job programs for a change on permanent career jobs in the private sector of our economy and also on those who were chronically prohibited, by various factors that ought not have been there, from having full employment.

We've still got a long way to go. The unemployment rate is too high, but we're working on it with your guidance. We've now got a youth bill, as you well know, through the House of Representatives. It's now in the Senate. And I believe that after the partisanship of this campaign election is gone, we'll see those $2 billion added on to the programs we've already got, and we'll see 600,000 young people put to work that have been wanting jobs and show they can be good citizens of this country.

In 1968, we passed an open housing law. You were the ones that initiated it, and I know you breathed a sigh of relief when it was passed. It hasn't meant 2 cents, because we have not yet been able to get through the Congress authority to enforce the law of the United States. And now we've gotten through the House of Representatives the amendments to the open housing law to give our executive department the right, the authority, the legal status to enforce the law. That is a project for the future, building on what you've done in the past.

I'm worried about the status of social security. I'm worried about the status of the minimum wage. I'm worried about the status of youth employment programs. I'm worried about the status of housing programs for the poor and the elderly. I'm worried about the status of the criminal justice system in this country that needs to be improved steadily, because it's not good enough yet. And you think back to the 8 years before I came in this office and what was happening to those programs, what was happening to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission now headed by Eleanor Holmes Norton, what was happening to our foreign policy concerning Africa before Andy Young and before Don McHenry transformed this Nation and its image in the eyes of the Third World. We don't want to go back to that.

There's a lot at stake. And one of the things that has changed the lives of people that you care about has been the new program for our cities. You know, one of the brightest spots in black American achievement has been in the management, as mayors, of some of our major cities. It has proved the effectiveness of black Americans to manage a complicated and very desperately needed improvement. in the lives of black and white citizens, because those ghetto areas of the deteriorating central cities, when I campaigned around this country in 1976, were in danger. Everywhere I went, there was a feeling of despair and hopelessness and discouragement and trouble. It's been improved tremendously. And I believe that the mayors of this country, Democratic and Republican, would overwhelmingly tell you that what I've just said is , true.

We've got a long way to go, but we've now begun to focus all the programs-education programs, health programs, welfare programs, transportation programs, housing programs, rebuilding programs, with EDA—on those areas that formerly were deprived, when under a previous administration those kind of funds were kind of channeled out into the rich suburbs where the influence is greater, where the citizens might have been better organized, and where deprived people very seldom live and benefit from Federal programs. This is the kind of change that has been made so far. We want to keep that progress underway.

I've been deeply disturbed lately at the attacks that have been made by depraved human beings on black citizens in our country, in Buffalo, New York, and Atlanta, Georgia. I've talked to the Attorney General about it. I've talked to Judge Webster about it; Drew Days about it. Jack Watson on my staff in the White House is monitoring this program to root out those criminals, day and night. It's a blight on our economy, it's a blight on our society, it's a blight on our country to have this done. And those kinds of people and the Ku Klux Klan have got to be caught, brought to justice, proved that they violated. the law, and put under the jail where they belong.

Not long ago, I read Daddy King's autobiography. And he went through part of his book and pointed out the troubles he's seen. And as a leader in a great family, one of the greatest families our Nation has ever seen, he's had his suffering and his disappointment, his pain, his anguish, and his sorrow. But he said every now and then he reminds himself of an old saying, "I was put here on a purpose." And there's no doubt in my mind that Daddy King was put here on a purpose. What his life meant, his communion with his wife, his offspring, and his own family, his influence, that of his family has inspired me; I'm sure it's inspired a lot of you. And I might add that as President of this country, I think the United States of America was created by God with a purpose—on a purpose. We're beginning to set an example for the rest of the world with human rights, with basic decency, with equality of opportunity.

And I can tell you this: that had it not been for the Constitution of the United States, we would not have the largest and most influential and perhaps the most economically sound black nation on Earth, Nigeria, now a democracy, an ally of ours, whereas shortly before I became President, the Secretary of State of the United States was not permitted to come into that country on an official visit. And it was done with the influence of the people there. I don't want to claim credit for it. But when they got ready to have a change from a military government, one of the kindest and best and most unselfish military governments I ever saw, into a freely elected assembly, with a Prime Minister that visited me in this room not long ago, they used the United States Constitution as a pattern after which they could predicate their own government.

And I went there on an official visit, the first time in 200 years—I hate to say this—that an American President had ever made an official visit to a black African country. No credit to me. I point out to you that it took us too long to do it. All the other Presidents should have been going over there, because it's not just only a benevolent thing to show equality, but it's good for our country. And we're selling rice from Arkansas in Nigeria now, and we're buying a lot of oil from them; got good trade going. It didn't hurt us. [Laughter] It helped us, right? And also, now we've got an opportunity to invest there, not only have a sale for American products but a good, sound future to stabilize the continent of Africa in order to continue to make progress.

And we've seen the same thing happen in a country formerly known as Rhodesia. You all know the situation when I came in this office. We were trying desperately to see majority rule invoked and to give black people a right to vote and to have a democratic government elected there. And had it not been for Andrew Young working with all those leaders involved who laid the groundwork for the British success—and we were partners with them—we would not have had standing here not too long ago, the Prime Minister, Mugabe—black leader, great new democracy in Africa.

This is the kind of thing that our country can do, because God, I think, created it on a purpose. That doesn't mean that we've done enough, but we're on the road toward the promised land. This, to me, is where you and I share a responsibility for the future we are facing now with economic problems. Inflation pressures are too high. And the judgment on what kind of tax program we'll have next year, and what kind of job programs we'll have next year, and what kind of rebuilding of American industry we'll have next year, will decide what kind of life we'll have next year among the people about whom you care and about whom I care.

The so-called Reagan-Kemp-Roth proposal is a tax proposal for the rich, which will not build new jobs and new industry and new tools and new factories. It'll have a tremendous benefit for some at the expense of the others. And we'll have inflationary pressures build up in this country that'll make what we've seen in the past pale into insignificance. Those are the kinds of issues that are hard to understand. But the underlying thrust of what the Democratic Party has always stood for and what the Republican Party has always stood for is exemplified by that change.

I know you've had a long, hard day. I just want to say one more thing. A lot of people to whom you speak and a lot of people to whom I speak say this is a big country, 230 million people. Over a hundred million will probably vote. What can one person do? What can one congregation do?

In 1960 if 28,000 people in Texas had changed their vote and just a few thousand in Illinois, John Kennedy would never have been President, Lyndon Johnson would never have been Vice President, and the change that's taken place in your life with voting rights, civil rights, new opportunities might never have come to pass in this Nation in our lifetime. That was a good story. It had a good ending.

In 1968 we had another story. We had a good Democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey. And they had somebody to represent the Republican Party; his name was Richard Nixon. I've thought a lot about who put Richard Nixon in the White House. It wasn't Republicans, because once they choose their nominee, you can expect them to vote for him. It wasn't the Republicans that put Richard Nixon in the Oval Office. It was the Democrats who didn't vote.

Some of them were for Gene McCarthy. And they said, "Well, Hubert Humphrey is not a perfect man." And the main thing they had against him was that he served as Vice President under Lyndon Johnson. That was the mark they put on him, and they wouldn't support him. And George Wallace, who had support in some States, was a third candidate. And folks said, "Well, I don't think I'll vote." The Republicans voted, and Hubert Humphrey lost. And perhaps one of the best Presidents this country would ever have seen did not have a chance to serve.

I don't want to see the same thing happen in 1980. I didn't get in this race to lose. I believe I was put here on a purpose, and I believe you all came to the White House this afternoon on a purpose. And if you and I can get together, I guarantee you that the Republicans will not sit in the Oval Office for the next 8 years. Right? [Applause] I'm with you.

Thank you. God bless you.