* Address by Walter White, Executive Secretary
National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People

Closing Session, 42 Annual Convention, NAACP
Municipal Auditorium
Atlanta, Georgia
3:30 PM, July 1, 1951

For release on delivery.

Today marks what may prove to be the third milestone of the long and tragic journey of the Negro towards the full democracy without which this nation cannot survive. For not only do fifteen million Negro Americans listen with growing skepticism to eloquent but hollow talk about American devotion to the cause of human freedom while the Dixiecrats arrogantly and obscenely flout that freedom; two-thirds of the peoples of the world who wear dark skins are even more cynical about the wide margin between American talk and performance on this basic principle.

The first milestone was the bloody and decisive Battle of Atlanta which broke the back of the Confederacy and marked the doom of legalized slavery. The blood of Union and Confederate soldiers which made more red the clay of these Georgia hills still stains the honor and retards the minds of those who would reverse the military decision made here. It has been significant that the NAACP--organize to complete the great task of emancipation of Negro bodies and white minds from the horrors of slavery--should meet here on the cite of the Battle of Atlanta to plan the steps to complete the job.

The second milestone was the famous speech made by Booker T. Washington in 1895 here in Atlanta at the Cotton States Exposition. It was not far from where we meet today that he promulgated his famous doctrine about unity as complete as the palm of one's hand in all things basic but as separate as one's fingers in all things "social". It has always been my opinion that Dr. Washington, being a shrewd negotiator, fancied himself as bamboozling white Southerners to support the then fledgling Tuskegee Institute.

How naive events proved him to be. A guilt-and-fear-ridden South avidly pounced upon the escapist route Dr. Washington provided them. Frightened by the possibility that brute force alone might not be sufficient to "keep the Negro in his place", the still rebellious South hailed Booker Washington as a genius who placed Negro sanction on separatism. He was a hero to the South until

-5-

This Supreme Court decision that the eleven Communist leaders constitute a "clear and present danger" should call the court's and America's attention to another clear and present danger which is longer-lived and equally dangerous to democracy. It is race hatred a danger which has been both "clear" and "present" since the Civil War. The time is not far off when America may be forced to act against such conspirators against democracy and freedom. May that day come before it is too late!

When will the intelligent South awaken to the insult against its intelligence which such men represent? These governors declare that they will never permit the abolition of segregation. They assert that the people "will never stand for such action." Do these gentlemen thereby brand the people of their states as being less law-abiding, less democratic then the citizens of twelve other Southern states in whose colleges and universities young Negro men and women study today? If I were a white Georgian or South Carolinian or Mississippian, I would bitterly resent such accusations of inferiority and bigotry.

Trying days are ahead for all of us and particularly Negro Americans. On one side stand the racists who will stop at nothing to maintain the status quo of second-class citizenship for colored citizens. On the other is the Communist Party which seeks desperately to find a hiding place among Negroes and their organizations. When these merchants of discord and opportunism seek to woo you with their roseate promises of an idyllic existence under the dictatorship of the Kremlin, continue as you have in the past to spurn their advances. But we must never forget that democracy, whatever its numerous and abysmal failures is still preferable to any system of government where one man or a tiny group of men have the power of life or death over its people. Our task is to aid America and ourselves by fighting for more, not less, democracy.

Most insulting to those honestly concerned about the race problem is the callous use by the Communists of cases involving the Negro for propaganda and fund-raising purposes. Do they consider us incurable saps and suckers? Time and time again from Scottsboro through the Willie McGee case the victims have either died in the electric chair or been rescued by non-Communist organizations like the

-6-

NAACP from the mistakes made by their erstwhile defenders. Meanwhile tremendous and unaccounted for funds have been raised by Communists which seem to have been used for almost every other purpose except defense of those they were claiming to defend.

Two things we must never forget. The first is that those who deny justice to the Negro are primarily responsible for the success of the Communists. Every sheriff, every judge, every jury, every lyncher who denies any American because of race or color the fullest protection of the law serves Stalin's cause.

The other fact we must never ignore is that we have been too gullible in reacting to emotional, hysterical appeals without asking the proper questions. Let's look at the record. While the Communists were losing the Willie McGee case, with invaluable assistance from Governor Fielding Wright, your NAACP was fighting and winning a much more difficult case involving not one but three Negroes in the Groveland, Florida case. McGee's death when there was grave doubt of his guilt was a tragedy which has lowered faith in America among the non-Communist as well as the Communist world. But through uncompromising and relentless fighting for more than four decades your NAACP has saved countless Willie McGee's from unjust punishment. We shall save many more with your help until the courts of this country become color blind.

When next Communists or anyone else come to you for funds to "save Willie McGee" ask them these questions: Does your organization account to the public through a certified public accountant's audit of all monies raised and expended? What is your record of success or failure in such cases? Is your purpose honestly to save Negroes from injustice or is it to show up and ridicule American judicial processes? Is the master you serve freedom and democracy or some other form of government or ideology? Demand and get answers to these questions. If you don't get them, don't give them your money or your aid.

It is not always easy to retain faith in democracy. It is most difficult to hold on to one's trust when a deadly Congressional coalition of reactionary Republicans and Southern Democrats, quarter-backed by Georgia's Richard Russell, block legislation to wipe out job discrimination, the poll tax, lynching and segregation. There is ahead of us a bitter struggle to amend the archaic Senate rules so

-7-

that a reactionary minority in Congress shall no longer block not
only civil rights laws but other legislation to insure a growing
democracy.

The past year has brought notable gains in our struggle against race prejudice in courts-martial in Korea, in the courts, in Congress and state legislatures, in expanding the horizons of white as well as Negro Americans as to the facts of race. We can look with pride on the progress we have made. But we cannot be honest or wise if we do not freely admit that first-class citizenship for all Negroes is a long way off. The refusal of Atlanta hotels to house Miss Josephine Baker and her party who at considerable financial sacrifice planned to come to Atlanta to help to make this conference an even greater success, is a gift of great value to the enemies of America. The non-Communist world as well as the Communist world will condemn Atlanta and the entire United States for this gratuitous insult, especially since four of the would-be visitors to Atlanta are citizens of France. What a commentary upon democracy is the fact that one of the hotel owners who refused accommodations to Miss Baker is also a citizen of France who has grown prosperous through the economic opportunity which America provides. But this man had the gall to deny to American as well as French citizens access to a place of public accommodation.

Al Capone's henchmen, when he was an inmate in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, were not denied accommodations in local hotels or restaurants. But Josephine Baker was shut out--despite her fame or her considerable contributions to winning the war in North Africa--solely because of her color!

I need not tell you that the ballot is one of our most potent weapons against racism. Forty-two years of unremitting struggle by your NAACP has wiped out disfranchisement through grandfather clauses and the white primary. As a result, more than one million Negroes vote today in the South. In the presidential elections of 1952 that number must be doubled. This vote joined with that of Negroes in 17 border and northern states where it holds the potential balance of power may again determine next year who will sit in the White House and in the halls of Congress. One thing is certain--the next president of the United States will

-11-

inferiority--are not good for business. Thus economic self-interest
will continue to bring about reforms despite setbacks in the re-
cent North Carolina and Florida elections.

Finally, the most potent and far-reaching reason for change
of the southern racial pattern is the Negro himself. The National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People forty-two years
ago was founded on the principle that it is both nobler and better
to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees. We have stood
firm. We shall continue to stand firm. We shall not retreat nor
apologize nor equivocate. As a result each year causes more millions
of both white and Negro citizens to know that appeasement never wins
and that courage--and courage alone--must guide every thought and
act.

These are the hard realities of the situation which face not
only the NAACP but the South, America and democracy all over the
earth.

From its inception the NAACP has never given nor asked any
quarter; it asks none now. We shall continue to ignore physical
threats or anguished cries for "more time" to remedy the inequali-
ties which come with ill grace from those responsible for them. We
fight not only to free the Negro from physical bondage but white
Americans from the moral slavery which results from artificial
barriers based on race, creed or national origin.

We fight not only for our generation but for generations
yet to come. We must constantly be aware of the wisdom of the words
of the distinguished southern novelist, Carson McCuller, when she
wrote: "The hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel
beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes. The
heart of a child can shrink so that forever afterward it is hard
and pitted as the seed of a peach. Or again, the heart of such
a child may fester and swell until it is a misery to carry within
the body, easily chafed and hurt by the most ordinary things."

This is what bigotry does to Negro children who are hated;
and to white children who are taught to hate.

Let us go from this place with new courage because of the

Closing Session, 42 Annual Convention, NAACP
Municipal Auditorium, Atlanta Georgia
3:30 PM, July 1, 1951

For release on delivery.

Today marks what may prove to be the third milestone
of the long and tragic journey of the Negro towards the full
democracy without which this nation cannot survive. For not
only do fifteen million Negro Americans listen with growing
skepticism to eloquent but hollow talk about American devo-
tion to the cause of human freedom while the Dixiecrats arro-
gantly and obscenely flout that freedom; two-thirds of the
peoples of the world who wear dark skins are even more cyni-
cal about the wide margin between American talk and perfor-
mance on this basic principle.

The first milestone was the bloody and decisive Battle
of Atlanta which broke the back of the Confederacy and marked
the doom of legalized slavery. The blood of the Union and
Confederate soldiers which made more red the clay of these
Georgia hills still stains the honor and retards the minds
of those who would reverse the military decision made here.
It has been significant that the NAACP--organized to com-
plete the great task of emancipation of Negro bodies and
minds from the horrors of slavery--should meet here on
the site of the Battle of Atlanta to plan the steps to com-
plete the job.

-2-

The second milestone was the famous speech made by Booker
T. Washington in 1895 here in Atlanta at the Cotton States
Exposition. It was not far from where we meet today that he
promulgated his famous doctrine about unity as complete as
the palm of one's hand in all things basic but as separate as
one's fingers in all things "social". It has always been
my opinion that Dr. Washington, being a shrewd negotiator,
fancied himself as bamboozling white Southerners to sup-
port the then fledgling Tuskegee Institute.

How naive events proved him to be. A guilt-and-fear-
ridden South avidly pounced upon the escapist route Dr.
Washington provided them. Frightened by the possibility
that brute force alone might not be sufficient to "keep the
Negro in his place," the still rebellious South hailed Booker
Washington as a genius who placed Negro sanction on separatism.
He was a hero to the South until he accepted a luncheon invi-
tation from President Theodore Roosevelt at the White House.

Booker Washington's blessing of segregation was swiftly
sealed into apparent legal permanency by the United States
Supreme Court's 1896 decision in *Plessy vs. Ferguson* that
there is no violation of the equal protection clause of the
Federal Constitution if tax-supported facilities are equal
though separate. Until the NAACP challenged that vicious
doCTRine, the unreconstructed South steadily widened the mar-
gin of opportunity to whites and Negroes.

You of this audience need no instruction from me on this
score. Nor need I cite figures nor exhibit photographs to
illustrate how ghastly a hypocrisy the "equal but separate"

-3-

doctrine has proved itself to be. Walk in any direction from
this place and you will see the truth. Go but a few miles
from Atlanta to watch a Negro child march past a handsome,
modern school for whites to a one-room dilapidated shack
of a school to recite, "One nation, indivisible, with liber-
ty and justice for all!" Is not the sight enough to make the
gods laugh--or weep--or vomit?"

And now this annual conference of the NAACP marks the
third stage of this war between bigotry and freedom. For
it is a conflict as fundamental as the cold war raging
throughout the world today between democracy and communism.
In truth it is the same war. For it is true beyond all ques-
tion that freedom and democracy for no American will last llong
if the Talmadges, the James Byrneses, the Fielding Wrights
have their way. I will go even further. The most valuable
allies Josef Stalin possesses in the United States today
are not the eleven futile communists about to enter prison--
one of them a Harvard Law School graduate, a Negro born
here in Atlanta, who turned to communism when a white judge
in this very city called him a "nigger." I charge--and there
is no honest American who can contradict the charge--that one
Herman Talmadge or one Eugene Cox is worth as much--possibly
more--to promotion of world-wide communism in creating dis-
trust of the United States than all the sorry breed of domes-
tic communists which infest America.

If there be any among you who doubts or challenges this, I
suggest he do what I have been privileged to do during the past

-4-

seven years--travel six times to Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. There he would encounter at every turn what a distinguished Georgian, Assistant Secretary of State Dean Rusk, recently declared to be America's greatest handicap so far as her prestige and foreign relations are concerned-- our unsolved race problem here at home. It is the anti-democracy of the Talmadges and Coxes which caused the great Pandit Nehru--democracy's last hope of survival in Asia-- to say in New Delhi not long ago that "when I warn the people of Asia to place no faith in the promises of Soviet Russia because those promises cannot be trusted, their answer is how much faith can be placed in America from which the only news of the treatment of dark people is of their being mistreated? How can we be sure that we who also are dark skinned will not be treated as Negroes are treated in the United States if we ally ourselves with America instead of Russia?

No American can deny that the dark-skinned two-thirds of the world's population have ample reason for such fears. I ask you to picture in your mind's eye the front page headlines throughout Asia a few days ago when the wives of two United Nations delegates from Pakistan were arrested, manhandled and treated as common criminals in New Rochelle, New York because they "wore their native dress and were dark skinned."

I ask you to see with me the headlines which greeted us in India " HOMES OF 18 NEGROES BOMBED BY KU KLUX KLAN IN BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA, USA." I saw those ruined homes on by return to America. One of them belonged to a Negro

-5-

lieutenant in the United States Army who was fighting and risking his life in Korea at the time of the bombings to preserve the democratic way of life for the bombers.

These are the ingredients of the shrinking faith in America which spreads like a prairie fire throughout Asia and Africa which Hugh Seton—"atson declares in his recently published "The East European Revolution" will decide the fate of the world.

Two things make our nation great. One is our philosophy of freedom written into our great state papers--the Declaration of Independence, the Federal Constitution, the Emancipation Proclamation which ought to be publicized throughout Dixie which frequently seems never to have heard of it, the Atlantic Charter and the Declaration of Human Rights to which our country is a signatory. These constitute our concept of human freedom, our yardstick of democracy and the goal to which we are dedicated.

But precepts alone can protect us neither from inner decay or assault from without. Our second bulwark of freedom is the unmatched production of our assembly lines. How long will that production last if, because of our racial shortcomings, we lose the raw materials which come from areas of the world inhabited by colored peoples? A few short miles from here near Aiken, S.C. the United States government is building one of the largest atomic energy plants in human history. Skilled Negro construction workers are barred from that plant as though afflicted with leprosy or treason. Where does the uranium come from which that plant will produce atomic bombs to protect America or atomic energy to make

-6-

life more abundant? Most of it comes from black Belgian
Congo.

American industry today is almost totally dependent on
raw materials from non-white areas of the earth. From 50 to
100 per cent of our manganese, tin, tungsten, rubber, bauxite,
chrome, cobalt and molybdenum come today from areas whose dark-
skinned people distrust the United States because of the steady
flow of stories of race bigotry which come out of America.

The NAACP today asks the white South and white America
how much longer do they believe they can afford the mount-
ing wave of resentment which its bigots are creating? When
will it wake up to the grim truth that election of men to
high office who would rather see America destroyed than yield
their racial prejudices is treason to our democratic way of
life? When will it realize that the recent threat of three
Southern governors to abolish public school education does
more damage to American prestige and hope of survival than
can be repaired by all the noble acts of which our nation
is capable?

Recently the Supreme Court affirmed the sentences of
eleven Communists "for conspiring to overthrow" the govern-
ment. I suggest that the recent conference in the State
Capitol of South Carolina between the governors of that
state, Georgia and Mississippi constitutes a conspiracy to
overthrow democracy through defiance of the government and
threats to deprive all citizens, white as well as Negro, of
education.

-7-

leaders constitute a "clear and present danger" should call
the court's and America's attention to another clear and pre-
sent danger which is longer-lived and equally dangerous to demo-
cracy. It is race hatred, a danger which has been both "clear"
and "present" since the Civil War. The time is not far off when A-
merica may/forced to act against such conspirators against demo-
cracy and freedom. May that day come before it is too late!

When will the intelligent South awaken to the insult
against its intelligence which such men represent? These
governors declare that they will never permit the abolition
of segregation. They assert that the people "will never stand
for such action." Do these gentlemen thereby brand the people
of their states as being less law-abiding, less democratic
than the citizens of twelve other Southern states in whose
colleges and universities young Negro men and women study
today? If I were a white Georgian or South Carolinian or Mis-
sissippian, I would bitterly resent such accusations of in-
feriority and bigotry.

Trying days are ahead for all of us and particularly Negro
Americans. On one side stand the racists who will stop at
nothing to maintain the status quo of second-class citizen-
ship for colored citizens. On the other is the Communist
Party which seeks desperately to find a hiding place among
Negroes and their organizations. When these merchants of
discord and opportunism seek to woo you with their roseate
promises of an idyllic existence under the dictatorship of
the Kremlin, continue as you have in the past to spurn their
advances. But we must never forget that democracy, whatever
its numerous and abysmal failures, is still preferable to

-8-

Most insulting to those honestly concerned about the
race problem is the callous use by the Communists of cases
involving the Negro for propaganda and fund-raising purposes.
Do they consider us incurable saps and suckers? Time and
time again from Scottsboro through the Willie McGee case the
victims have either died in the electric chair or been res-
cued by non-Communist organizations like the NAACP from the
mistakes made by their erstwhile defenders. Meanwhile tre-
mendous and unaccounted for funds have been raised by Com-
munists which seem to have been used for almost every other
purpose except defense of those they were claiming to defend.

The other fact we must never ignore is that we have been
too gullible in reacting to emotional, hysterical appeals
without asking the proper questions. Let's look at the re-
cord. While the Communists were losing the Willie McGee case,
with invaluable assistance from Governor Fielding Wright, your
NAACP was fighting and winning a much more difficult case in-
volving not one but three Negroes in the Groveland, Florida
case. McGee's death when there was grave doubt of his guilt
was a tragedy which has lowered faith in America among the

-9-

It is not always easy to retain faith in democracy. It is
most difficult to hold on to one's trust when a deadly Congress-
ional coalition of reactionary Republicans and Southern Demo-
crats, quarterbacked by Georgia's Richard Russell, block legis-
lation to wipe out job discrimination, the poll tax, lynching
and segregation. There is ahead of us a bitter struggle to
amend the archaic Senate rules so that a reactionary minori-
ty in Congress shall no longer block not only civil rights
laws but other legislation to insure a growing democracy.

-11-

power may again determine next year who will sit in the White
House and in the halls of Congress. One thing is certain--
the next president of the United States will be neither a
Dixiecrat nor a reactionary Republican. For the Negro vote
will stand with that of other enlightened Americans who are
determined that freedom shall not be destroyed by racial,
economic or political bigots. We beg you to return to your
homes and urge all qualified persons, particularly Negroes,
to register and vote.

The legal and legislative victories which we have won
are enormously important. But they represent only a part
of the task which is ours. Neither laws or court decisions
are worth much unless there is a climate of public opinion
willing to accept them. The presence of 1,000 Negro students
in state-supported universities in twelve southern states
illustrates this and provides evidence of the wisdom of the
NAACP's procedure. Had not litigation been accompanied by
public education, neither Negro nor white Americans would have
been ready for the considerable changes which have occurred
same
during the past decade. I predict today that that/change
will occur at the undergraduate, high school and grammar
school levels when the Supreme Court reverses the recent
Clarendon County decision.

That decision must in no sense of the world be regarded
as a defeat. We lost a battle but we will not lose the war.
The unrealistic position of the majority opinion will be
challenged vigorously and at the earliest possible date in
the United States Supreme Court.

-12-

This will be done to end the merciless thievery which
has been perpetrated on Negroes ever since the Civil War,
running into billions of dollars. South Carolina belatedly
is attempting to equalize education. How does she propose
to do so? By floating a 75 million dollar bond issue to be
paid for by a three percent sales tax. Negroes constitute
approximately 45 per cent of South Carolina's population. By
paying nearly half of the tax they would thereby be forced
to pay an additional price of continued imprisonment in the
educational ghetto. The NAACP will challenge that injustice
with all the strength you give it.

We do not stand alone in this struggle. As the nation
and the South mature, phenomenal revolutions of white opin-
ion appear with increasing frequency. Here are a few of
them. Southern white students are showing their elders the way
to democracy. Francis Sturcken at the College of Charleston
recently won a coveted award for his essay on "The Liquid
South" in which he unequivocally declared that racial segre-
gation must go and that "My generation is going to do it...
The expectations and aspirations of the Negro have been en-
larged and widened by the knowledge that their society pro-
fesses to embrace the democratic ideal. They are not going
to be disappointed."

What is most remarkable is that Francis Sturcken speaks
not for himself alone but for the overwhelming majority of
white southern students. As members of his generation fill
the vacancies which will be created by the not unwelcome
passing from the scene of demagogues who today make the
South and America ridiculous before the world, the South it-
self may take the leadership in the struggle for racial demo-

-13-

cracy.

Permit me to cite another example of this change which occurred only a few days ago at the Southeastern Regional Conference of Methodist Youth at Lake Junaluska, N. C. Nearly 300 delegates from colleges in Louisiana, Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia attended. One of them was a colored girl. The most attractive inducement offered to the delegates was a beautiful swimming pool. But when they were told that regulations forbade Negroes using it not one of the white delegates went into the water during the ten very hot days the conference was in session. Here was the South--and Christian doctrine--at their best.

Behind the students in their struggle against race prejudice come those segments of the church which have leadership like that of that great Christian lady of Atlanta, Mrs. Dorothy Tilly. Increasingly we see concrete evidence of the troubled consciences of southern whites who are unable to reconcile their racial practices with their religious principles. The time may not be far off when all the children of God will think not at all of race when they bow before Him.

I have recently seen here in the South a revolution of racial attitudes. Some sixty of us were guests of the Department of Defense on an orientation tour of Army, Navy, Air Corps and Marine Bases. In all of these, except the Army post at Fort Benning--and even there to a limited extent--race has been subordinated almost to obliteration. I saw white boys from Mississippi learning to fight for democracy, eating, sleeping, playing baseball, going to

-14-

the movies, shopping in the PX, occupying adjoining hospital
beds, even adjoining cells in the guard house to Negroes. No
one seemed contaminated by the contact. No one, after the
first shock of unfamiliar democracy had worn off, seemed aware
of race or color. Is it not possible that those for whom to-
days fight for survival is being waged can be as intelligent
as those who risk death to insure that survival?

Labor unions are contributing their share with vary-
ing degrees of integrity and effectiveness. Not all of them
are as yet wise enough to know that the NAACP's fight against
mob violence, disfranchisement, restrictive covenants and the
ghetto is a fight for them too. On the national scene men
like Philip Murray, William Green, Walter Reuther and A. Philip
Randolph lead the campaign to show all trade union members
that none of them can be free as long as the Negro is denied
any right as a citizen.

The Southern press has too often lagged behind the rest
of the nation. Too often has it claimed that the South of its
own volition has lessened differentials in education, reduced
lynching and fought for enfranchisement of the Negro when they
knew these changes were brought about through the frontal at-
tack of the NAACP upon these evils. We do not begrudge them
their undeserved sense of participation, however. We urge
them to recognize that racial segregation is doomed and that
they can render an even greater service to the South and to
the nation if they help to bring about that result.

-15-

There are potent economic reasons why the South is chang-
ing its racial attitude. Billions of dollars have been poured
into the South in defense installations, industrial plants and
other federal grants. The South quite understandably wants more
dollars, more federal grants, more industries, more economic
advantage. Wiser leaders of the South know that this flow of
dollars will not continue if there is danger of destruction of
property or disorganization of the labor supply. They know that
northern notions of the mental and moral inferiority of white
southerners--which are as false as southern whites' notions
of Negroes' mental and moral inferiority--are not good for busi-
ness. Thus economic self-interest will continue to bring
about reforms despite setbacks in the recent North Carolina and
Florida elections.

Finally, the most potent and far-reaching reason for change
of the southern racial pattern is the Negro himself. The National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People forty-two
years ago was founded on the principle that it is both nobler
and better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees.
We have stood firm. We shall continue to stand firm. We shall
not retreat nor apologize nor equivocate. As a result each year
causes more millions of both white and Negro citizens to know
that appeasement never wins and that courage--and courage alone--
must guide every thought and act.

These are hard realities of the situation which face not
only the NAACP but the South, America and democracy all over the
earth.

-16-

quarter; it asks none now. We shall continue to ignore physi-
cal threats or anguished cries for "more time" to remedy the
inequalities which come with ill grace from those responsible
for them. We fight not only to free the Negro from physical
bondage but white Americans from the moral slavery which re-
sults from artificial barriers based on race, creed or na-
tional origin.

Let us go from this place with new courage because of the
long, hard road we have traveled towards freedom. But let us
also go with resolute determination to use every instrument
of the democratic process to make America at long last a true
democracy where every man can walk in human dignity before his
fellow man and his God.

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