[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[May 7, 1992]
[Pages 717-719]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 717]]

Remarks in a Roundtable Discussion With Leaders of the African-American 
Community in Los Angeles

May 7, 1992
    Rev. Edward V. Hill. May I give the ground rules, please. The 
persons who are seated in this assembly have been selected, a cross from 
young people to business people to leaders. The President wanted to meet 
just a few. He will not have an opportunity to hear a long question, but 
if you can make short your statement, the President of the United States 
would like to hear you.
    Mr. President, we are honored again to have you.
    The President. Reverend Hill, let me--I would never, ever correct 
E.V. Hill, especially in his own church in its centennial year, but 
rather than questions, and I will be glad to answer them, what I really 
would like to get is the heartbeat of the community, hear from you all 
as to what you think can best help, where matters stand.
    It's hard on a short visit to get all this. I will assure you, and I 
hope that Pete, sitting here, and Tom Bradley would agree, that we have 
tried to bring Federal resources to bear in a timely fashion. It's been 
done pretty low-key in the sense that the Federal officers out here have 
been not seeking a limelight. But under David Kearns they've put 
together a good task force. And I've been very gratified that the 
leaders, both from city council and the Mayor's office, as well as the 
Governor's office, feel the Federal Government is responding, whether 
it's from FEMA or whether it's from Jack Kemp's HUD or whether it's from 
Lou Sullivan's HHS or the Department of Education. Leading the fray was 
Pat Saiki, out here very early for the SBA, small business loans.
    So I don't want to go into all these programs, although I'd be glad 
to have our experts respond to any questions on them at all. But what 
I'd like to do is, first, to say thank you; second, to let you know that 
justice will prevail, that we will follow through with my 
responsibilities under the law, and the Department of Justice is 
following through on the justice side of the equation to examine, to see 
if civil rights of anybody have been violated, King or anybody, Rodney 
King or anyone else, that there be fairplay and equity there.
    But having said all that, let me tell you something, and you know it 
better than I. There is no way, really, I guess, that the President can 
come here in an every-4-year situation and not have it be accused by 
some of being political. I don't want it to be political. I want to get 
by this. We've got plenty of time later on in the year for the politics. 
I want to hear from you, just all the bark off as to what you think we 
can do, and please speak frankly about it.
    If your comments have a political ring it will not offend because, 
as I say, it's a hard year to stay out of it. But we're here to help, 
and we're here to learn. And that's it.

[A participant spoke on local oversight of funding allocations.]

    The President. That's a good opening comment.

[A participant requested assistance to rebuild his small business.]

    The President. May I make a comment on that, Reverend?
    Reverend Hill. Yes.
    The President. Because there are a lot of others like you, and 
you're not here as a special pleader. The Federal Government can in a 
situation like this be of real assistance. It is largely through SBA, 
but perhaps other facilities, Agencies can help, too.
    Clearly this is one, this type of experience is one where the 
Federal Government has resources available, pumping them in now. I 
outlined the programs last night. I won't go through them here, although 
Pat Saiki is here now. And to others like you whose life has gone up in 
smoke, we can get assistance, no strings attached to it, largely through 
SBA but not only SBA.
    And so we can get, in your case obviously, somebody in touch with 
you. But others

[[Page 718]]

like you, the Small Business Administration and other Federal Agencies 
can help. I know that Pete or Tom Bradley can speak for the city. But 
this is clearly one where we have the resources.

[A participant spoke on local investment in the rebuilding effort.]

    The President. Let me comment on that one. I strongly agree with 
that concept, and we will, again, push for the concept at the Federal 
level. But I am told by city officials that you are absolutely correct, 
that where ownership has been involved, there has been much more respect 
for property. And certainly this concept of ownership in the community, 
the businesses, is something I strongly endorse. And we will find ways 
to implement that at the Federal level, I promise you.

[A participant spoke on assistance for community child development 
programs. Another participant spoke on the dissemination of information 
about available assistance.]

    The President. The things we're trying to work out for the Federal 
Government is that kind of, like a what you call a one-stop-shopping 
approach. And David Kearns, who is our number two in the Department of 
Education--some may remember him through his work with the Urban League 
and others when he was the chairman of Xerox, a very large company, but 
a great manager--is working that problem right now. And it would include 
not just the kind of services that this lady talked about, but all of 
it, including what the private sector can do to help. I know Peter 
Ueberroth's getting involved in that, and we have a national office on 
that. But I think that the plea here is a very good one for letting 
people know what's out there.

[A participant spoke on the destruction of community organization 
facilities.]

    The President. May I ask you a question before you sit down? And it 
may be an impossible one to answer. But here's 100 Black Men, a 
respected organization that has no enemies. Why would someone target--no 
matter what the rage, why would somebody target that building? We've 
seen this gentleman--what's your name again?
    Participant. Dereke.
    The President. Yes, Dereke. He was telling me this morning, he was 
the one I was referring to about who saw one of his own employees taking 
stuff out of the store. We went around and talked about the ownership 
and the different facilities there. One was a dentist's office. The 
dentist and his wife stood out there with a dog trying to keep people 
from coming in and taking--where is he--Dr. Faulkner right here. An 
amazing story. But why? Maybe that one is messed up because it was next 
door to a supermarket where people can go and get food. But why the 100 
Black Men, why would somebody destroy that building? Can you----
    Participant. The only thing that I think that it might have had--the 
city was leasing the building. It might have had the city emblem up 
there, I don't know. But I want to just conclude with the fact that the 
Young Black Scholars, a model program that is really being modeled by 
the State now with senate bill 1114, and it also reflects the Education 
2000 vision that you are really pushing forward.

[A participant spoke on job training. Another participant spoke on 
Federal aid for infrastructure improvements and employment of arrested 
rioters in cleanup efforts.]

    The President. Thank you, sir.

[A participant spoke on minority business opportunity. Another 
participant asked about small business loans for rebuilding churches.]

    The President. I think the answer would be yes, but do you know the 
answer to that, Pat, whether SBA can apply to the reconstruction of 
churches?
    Administrator Saiki. We'll look into it, Mr. President.
    The President. She doesn't know offhand, but it ought to and we 
ought--there's a place, if we need change, there's something we ought to 
change.

[A participant spoke on youth programs targeted at gang members. Another 
participant spoke on comprehensive, prevention-

[[Page 719]]

oriented aid and mentoring programs. Other participants spoke on welfare 
reform, job discrimination, educational development programs, and family 
involvement in education. Another participant asked about the processing 
time for SBA loans.]

    The President. No, we have given instructions to Pat Saiki, who is 
here, to speed this process up. Now, I hope we're successful. We will 
keep on it to see that we are. You might ask her just on this one 
specific--right behind you--because that is the underlying as to what 
we're trying to do here, and it is very, very important in the 
reconstruction.

                    Note: The discussion began at 9:30 a.m. at Mount 
                        Zion Missionary Baptist Church.