[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 95 (Tuesday, July 8, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1370]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                CHARLES STITH DISCUSSES RACIAL PROGRESS

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                           HON. BARNEY FRANK

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 8, 1997

  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, people often call for dialog 
on difficult issues, but rarely engage in it beyond talking about what 
a nice idea it would be if we had some. In the June 29 issue of the 
Boston Globe, Charles R. Stith of Boston, President of the Organization 
for a New Equality made a genuinely useful contribution to the dialog 
on race that we should be having. I have known Charles Stith for many 
years and I am an admirer of the work he has done on many fronts to 
further the cause of racial justice--and indeed social justice for all 
people--in greater Boston and in America. I believe his short essay is 
a wise and useful contribution to the national conversation and given 
the importance of this topic and his credentials to speak out on it, I 
ask that it be printed here.

       President Clinton has challenged Americans to resume our 
     efforts on racial reconciliation and plans to lead us in a 
     national dialogue toward that end. After listening to the 
     pundits, pontificators, and prognosticators muse about the 
     virtues and failings of the president's effort, I will add my 
     view to the discussion. It can be summarized in one word--
     hope.
       There is cause for hope when it comes to racial justice and 
     racial reconciliation in this country. The naysayers are not 
     credible arbiters of history. If the past 30 years mean 
     anything, they are a testament to the possibility of change.
       I am of that generation of African-Americans born on the 
     cusp of discriminatory laws, customs, and change. I remember 
     integrating the Fox movie theater during my adolescent years 
     in St. Louis. I remember my brother and me getting dressed on 
     that fateful day in our ``Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes'' and 
     being admonished by our mother not to do ``anything to 
     embarrass the race.''
       America has come a long way since those days. Not only are 
     we beyond the embarrassment and inconvenience of petty 
     apartheid American-style, but we have made some equally 
     important advances in other areas.
       For example, in 1960 approximately 18 percent of African-
     American families were middle class; by 1990 there were 42 
     percent. About 30 years ago there were 1,400 black elected 
     officials; today there are close to 10,000. In that group are 
     black mayors of predominantly white cities and a US senator.
       In addition, minority-owned businesses are one of the 
     fastest growing segments of the economy. The number of 
     businesses owned by minorities in the United States increased 
     60 percent between 1987 and 1992. This compares to an 
     increase of 26 percent for all US firms over the same period.
       On the social front, there is a broader acceptance in both 
     the black and white communities of interracial marriage and 
     interracial adoption.
       Are we as a nation where we ought to be regarding racial 
     justice and reconciliation? Obviously not; ergo the necessity 
     of the national dialogue. But having acknowledged that, the 
     past 30 years provide a demonstration of what can be 
     accomplished if there is a will.
       The other reason that hope ought to be the first word in 
     this national dialogue on race relations is the flip side of 
     the first. The progress achieved over the past 30 years was 
     possible because people believed that we should not live as a 
     ``house divided against itself'' and that we could do 
     something individually and societally to make a difference. 
     If we are to finish the unfinished business of racial 
     reconciliation in this country, then people have to believe 
     that things can change. The reason is simple: unless people 
     believe that there is a way, there is no will.
       Those on the left must go beyond bashing Clinton for what 
     they see as his inadequacies of perspective and policy. We 
     must stop contributing to the cynicism that grips the nation. 
     If we don't, then just as we lost political power at the 
     national level in '92, we will also lose our moral authority 
     to challenge the nation to pursue the high ground of racial 
     justice and racial reconciliation. If we are not in the 
     vanguard of trying to lead this nation to believing again 
     that the quest to bring people together across color, class, 
     and community lines is worthwhile, then who will?
       We might do well to reflect on Martin Luther King Jr.'s 
     essay ``A Testament of Hope:''
       ``I am an optimist,'' he wrote, because while ``it is 
     possible for me to falter, I am profoundly secure in my 
     knowledge that God loves us; he has not worked out a design 
     for our failure. Man has the capacity to do right as well as 
     wrong, and his history is a path upward, not downward. The 
     past is strewn with the ruins of empires of tyranny, and each 
     is a monument not merely to man's blunders but to his 
     capacity to overcome them.''

     

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