US Presidency
1963

We must not lose that soul in dishonor now on the fields of hate. To ask for patience from the Negro is to ask him to give more of what he has already given enough. But to fail to ask of him and of all Americans -perseverance within the processes of a free and responsible society would be to fail to ask what the national interest requires of all its citizens. The law can not save those who deny it but neither can the law serve any who do not use it. The history of injustice and inequality is a history of disuse of the law. Law has not failed and is not failing. We as a nation have failed ourselves by not trusting the law and by not using the law to gain sooner the ends of justice which law alone serves. If the white over estimates what he has done for the Negro without the law, the Negro may under estimate what he is doing and can do for himself with the law.