[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
[May 11, 1993]
[Pages 624-626]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
May 11, 1993

    Thank you very much, Mr. Vice President, for that wonderful 
introduction and for being such a great partner in the campaign of 1992 
and in this administration. I think it is fair to say that Vice 
President Gore has already exercised a larger role in this 
administration than perhaps any Vice President in the history of this 
country. And I hope he will continue to do so.
    I'm honored to be here with Ralph Neas and with my longtime friend 
Benjamin Hooks. Don't you just love to hear Ben talk? I mean, really, I 
could hear him intone those poems from now until tomorrow morning, 
reminding me of the rhythms of my childhood and the faith of our 
parents.
    I'm proud to be here with all of you tonight not only because of 
what you have done for the last four decades and more but because of 
what together we must do now. I'm proud of your commitment to civil 
rights. I'm proud to be here with our Attorney General, Janet Reno, who 
is the embodiment of that.
    I thank you for the vote of the national board of the leadership 
conference today to support the nomination of Lani Guinier to be 
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. I want to say a special 
word of support for Lani Guinier. I went to law school with her, and I 
announced at the Justice Department the other day when we announced all 
of our Assistant Attorneys General that she had actually sued me once. 
[Laughter] Not only that, she didn't lose. And I nominated her anyway. 
So the Senate ought to be able to put up with a little controversy in 
the cause of civil rights and go on and confirm her so we can get about 
the business of America.
    I want to say, too, how honored I am to be here with your honorees. 
My friend Dorothy Height: From the freedom schools in Mississippi to the 
Black Family Reunion, what a guiding spirit she has been to all of us.
    I want to take my hat off to Raul Yzaguirre for his leading voice. 
Over 20 years ago, I first came in contact with La Raza as a movement 
and a commitment. And I have watched them over these years help people 
all across the country with the practical problems of life which give 
real meaning to the idea of civil rights, when you can actually live in 
a decent house and have a decent job and know your kids are going to get 
a decent education and know that you're going to be treated fairly no 
matter what your race is.
    I want to say, too, how very much I admire Justin Dart for all the 
work that he's done as Chair of the President's Commission on Employment 
of People with Disabilities and leader in making the Americans with 
Disabilities Act come to life. You know, Justin, every time we went 
anywhere in the campaign and had a rally, we always had a section for 
people with disabilities. Today I went to a suburb north of Chicago, in 
a heavily Republican community, as it turned out, to meet with a bunch 
of students from the high school that I was visiting and other high 
schools and people in the community. And we had a big section there for 
the students with disabilities. And I was thinking as I was coming over 
here tonight, a lot of those kids are where they are today because of 
what you did--and you ought to be proud of that--sitting in the front of 
the row so they can ask the President their questions and shake hands 
with the President; instead of being overlooked, being uplifted.
    I say that to you to make one introductory point. I've been here for 
100 days and a sum, fighting to break the gridlock in Washington. And 
sometimes I think the biggest gridlock of all is the gridlock in our 
minds, the hold that foolish notions have on our imaginations. I have 
been roundly attacked by people on the extreme right trying to make me 
look like some radical leftwinger because I had this crazy notion that I 
ought to have an administration that would have some diversity and give 
women as well

[[Page 625]]

as men and people of color as well as people who look like me the chance 
to serve if they could meet high standards of excellence. And there are 
people who say, well--and I see these relentless articles in the paper--
oh, that's why no appointments are being made. Well, so in 100 days I 
show up at the Justice Department, and I ask for the totals: Pass me the 
envelope, please. [Laughter] And it turns out that in spite of my 
commitment to diversity and excellence, after 100 days my predecessor 
had made 99 appointments, his predecessor, President Reagan, had made 
152 appointments, and I'd made 173. Where are they? And I expected to 
see the shameless right in sackcloth and ashes, saying that we had 
falsely accused this poor President in promoting gridlock. But they have 
no shame. [Laughter]
    Let me tell you something: Today when I was in Illinois, a young, 
handsome, fine-looking Hispanic man stood up and said, ``I have joined 
the United States Army. And I'm proud that I'm going to serve my 
country. And I know we've got to cut the military budget, but I want to 
know if you're going to cut it so much that I can't give my whole career 
to my country if I want to.'' And I thought to myself, why doesn't 
somebody point out to all these people who have attacked us for trying 
to open the doors of opportunities that the number one, most successful 
institution in the United States of America for giving opportunities to 
women and people of color are the United States military branches. They 
have done it with a commitment to excellence and opportunity. And what 
we've got to do is to prove that the rest of us can do so as well. And 
we ought not to make this a partisan issue, and the guardians of 
gridlock should stop trying to use it to move arguments around that 
indicate that there's somehow something wrong with the President who 
believes that everybody who can serve ought to have the chance to do so.
    This administration is committed to the enforcement of the civil 
rights laws. This administration is also committed to programs like 
national service that give everybody the possibility of being part of a 
new era of civic responsibility. This administration is committed to 
guaranteeing that every American is entitled to a fair chance at the 
brass ring but even more important, to empowering people to seize those 
opportunities, to moving beyond the incredible gridlock in the mind of 
this town that you either have to give somebody something for nothing or 
take it all off the table.
    Why don't we behave in Washington the way people behave in their 
normal lives? We need opportunity and responsibility. Why don't we stop 
making these nutty arguments that imply that everything in life is an 
either-or proposition: We're either going to write somebody a check and 
bust the Government budget, or we're just going to stick it to them and 
walk away. That's not the way life works.
    You know, civil rights should embody a country that works. We don't 
want to guarantee everybody equal employment opportunities when there 
are no jobs. Does that mean that we have to sacrifice one and not the 
other? No, it means you should have a President who will pursue both, 
walking and chewing gum at the same time. That's what this is about. Is 
that right?
    We want to guarantee everybody an equal opportunity to get an 
education, but wouldn't it be nice if the education you're getting is 
also better? It's not either-or. We want to guarantee everybody the 
right to health care and family security through health care, but 
wouldn't it be nice if you live in a rural area or in the heart of a big 
city if there happens to be a clinic to visit?
    I just am amazed after 100 days to find that a lot of the gridlock 
that has gripped this city for so long is in the imposition of what one 
writer had called false choices on all of us who are supposed to make 
policy. It never occurred to me that I should appoint somebody who 
wasn't qualified to a job. You know, I don't wake up in the morning 
thinking, you know, I need to find some female Latino who is totally 
unqualified to put in a job. [Laughter] Or neither did it ever occur to 
me that every white man I appoint is going to hit a home run every day. 
But that is the kind of rhetoric you see running beneath so much of the 
characterization when we try to change 12 years of attitudes.
    The same people that were criticizing the previous administrations 
for being insensitive to civil rights immediately turned around and say, 
``Oh, there's too much, too much attention being given to ethnicity and 
gender, and that's why no appointments are being made.'' So the record 
comes in, and I'm still waiting for the acknowledgement.
    I tell you, folks, I refuse to believe that we cannot go forward 
together, that we cannot set an example, that we cannot make progress. I

[[Page 626]]

refuse to believe that you can't be committed to civil rights and to 
civic responsibility. I refuse to believe that we can't create economic 
opportunity by empowering people to seize control of their destiny and 
changing the Government's policies.
    I think that if this leadership council should have any mission 
today, it should be to break through those barriers that push us all 
into one extreme camp or the other and make us mute in the face of 
reality and common sense. Surely we can bring the experience of our own 
lives and the lives of our fellow Americans beyond the borders of this 
city to the policymaking process that will dominate Washington for the 
next year. That is what we ought to do if we want civil rights to come 
alive in this country.
    You know, when I ran for this job I spent a lot of time in African-
American churches because I always had, and because I felt at home. When 
I got this job and I sought to protect the religious and civil liberties 
of every American, it was because I wanted mine protected and because I 
have a sharp memory of what it was like to live in a society where half 
the people I knew, because of their color, were treated as second-class 
citizens.
    I also have a sharp memory of those who had the courage to try to 
change that position. And now that I am President, I want you to know 
that I'll make my mistakes from time to time, but I'm going to keep 
trying to move the ball forward. I believe we can make advances. I don't 
believe that our fights are over. I know that there are still civil 
rights battles to be fought, but I know that they need to be fought 
today in the context of making a real difference in real people's lives. 
And we should not be intimidated, those of us who believe in the cause 
of civil rights for all Americans, into thinking that somehow that can 
be separated from the fight for economic justice and economic progress 
and making our free enterprise system work better.
    We should not let people who basically don't care whether we make 
progress in civil rights think that you can separate civil rights from 
the fight for substantive improvements in education and for meaningful 
advances in health care or any other area of our national life. Let us 
resolve tonight that we're going to spend the next 4 years breaking down 
the gridlock by tearing down the artificial barriers in people's minds 
to bringing us together, saying we don't have a person to waste and 
lifting up everybody's God-given potential and doing what we can to see 
that they achieve it.
    Thank you very much, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 8 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. In his 
remarks, he referred to Ralph Neas, executive director, Leadership 
Conference on Civil Rights; Benjamin L. Hooks, former executive 
director, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; 
Dorothy I. Height, president and CEO, National Council of Negro Women; 
and Raul Yzaguirre, president and CEO, National Council of La Raza.