White House Press Release, Address by President Harry S. Truman at Harlem, New York

HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE October 29, 1948 V. CONFIDENTIAL: The following address of the President, to be delivered THE in Harlem, New York, today, Friday, October 29, 1948, MUST BE HELD FOR ARCHIVES AN RECORDS RELEASE until 2:45 P.M., Eastern Standard Time. SERVICE LIBRARY CHARLES G. ROSS Secretary to the President - - - - I deeply appreciate the award you have just given me. Franklin Roosevelt was a great champion of human rights. When he led us out of the depression and to victory over the Axis, he enabled us to build a country in which prosperity and freedom exist side by side. That is the only atmosphere in which human rights can thrive. Eventually, we are going to have an America in which freedom and opportunity are the same for everyone. There is only one way to accomplish that great purpose; that is to keep working for it and never to take a back- ward step. I am especially glad to receive the Franklin D. Roosevelt award on this day -- October 29. This date means a great deal to me personally, and it is a significant date in the history of human freedom in this country. One year ago today, on October 29, 1947, the President's Committee on Civil Rights submitted to me, and to the American people, its momentous report. That report was drawn up by men and women who had the honesty to face the whole problem of civil rights squarely, and the courage to state their conclusions frankly. I created the Civil Rights Committee because racial and religious intolerance began to appear after the war. They threatened the very freedoms we had just fought for. We Americans have a democratic way of acting when our freedoms are threatened. We get the most thoughtful and representative men and women we can find, and we ask them to put down on paper the principles that represent freedom and a method of action that will preserve and extend freedom. In that manner, we get a declaration of purpose and a guide for action that the whole country can consider. That is the way in which the Declaration of Independence was drawn up. That is the way in which the Constitution was written. The report that the Civil Rights Committee prepared is in the tradition of those two great documents. It was the authors of the Declaration of Independence who stated the principle that all men are created equal in their rights, and that it is to secure these rights that governments are instituted among men. It was the authors of the Constitution who made it clear that, under our form of government, all citizens are equal before the law, and that the Federal Government has a duty to guarantee to every citizen the equal protection of the laws. The Civil Rights Committee did much more than repeat these great principles, It described a method to put these principles into action, and to make them a living reality for every American, regardless of his race, his religion, or his national origin. When every American knows that his rights and his opportunities are fully protected and respected by the Federal, state, and local govern- ments, then we will have the kind of unity that really means something. It is easy to talk about unity. But it is the work that is done for unity that really counts. OVER