[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 44 (Monday, November 4, 1996)]
[Pages 2233-2234]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Presentation of the Henry Ossawa Tanner Painting

October 29, 1996

    Let me just say, very briefly, I want to thank Dr. Rae Alexander-
Minter for her moving tribute and for making this possible. I want to 
thank her mother for taking good care of this picture.
    Thank you, Edward Bell, for being a good American citizen and asking 
questions, which is what we need our citizens to do. Thank you, Rex 
Scouten; and thank you, David Driskell; thank you to the late Sylvia 
Williams. I'd also like to thank my wife for her insistence that we take 
up Mr. Bell's suggestion.
    Tonight is a happy night for us, to be here, to be a part of this. 
Tonight reminds us, in all humility, that we are simply tenants here 
passing through--even though we're trying to get our lease renewed at 
the moment. [Laughter] There is, in any case, a limit on the lease, and 
it's a very short period in the very long life of our great country.
    And in so many ways, everything that represents America sooner or 
later has to come to represent a better America, has to come to reflect 
our ongoing journey. And I was thinking tonight that Thomas Jefferson, 
whose statue looks directly into the second floor Oval Room, right above 
us here, would be smiling. You know, on the memorial they have that 
wonderful quote, when Jefferson said, ``When I think of slavery, I 
tremble to think that God is just.'' He knew better. And it took us a 
long time to come to grips with all that.
    And this magnificent artist whom we honor tonight had to live in the 
afterwash of the Civil War and our continuing struggle to come to grips 
with our obligations as a people, both moral and constitutional. Now, a 
long time after that and too long in coming, this great painting will 
hang in the Green Room and over 1\1/2\ million visitors will see it 
every year. Most of them, but not all of them, will be Americans. Of the 
Americans, they will come from more than African-American and Caucasian-
American stock. They will now come from a myriad of racial and ethnic 
and religious groups. But when they stop in the Green Room and look at 
this beautiful work of art, they will know that America here in the 
people's house is moving again toward its ultimate destiny and living 
closer to its ideals.
    To all of you who have made that possible, I thank you. I thank you 
for being here tonight. And I ask you now to join us in the reception. 
Thank you very, very much.

Note: The President spoke at 6:52 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Rae Alexander-Minter, grandniece 
of the artist and former owner of the painting Sand Dunes at Sunset, 
Atlantic City; Edward Bell, who wrote the President informing him that 
no works of African-American artists were included in the White House 
collection; Rex Scouten, White House Curator; David Driskell, expert on

[[Page 2234]]

African-American art; and Sylvia Williams, former director, Smithsonian 
Museum of African Art.