New Hampshire Cultural Diversity Awareness Council

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DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY DINNER
Remarks as prepared for delivery
by Acting Secretary Alphonso Jackson
Concord, New Hampshire
Monday, January 19, 2004

Thank you for your generous introduction, Michael. I appreciate those kind words and the invitation to join all of you here tonight. The New Hampshire Cultural Diversity Awareness Council is a precious resource in this state. I'm honored to take part in your annual "Keeping the Dream Alive" dinner.

I'm very pleased to see Governor Benson. The Governor is providing tremendous leadership in New Hampshire, and the President is grateful for everything you're accomplishing here.

Congressman Jeb Bradley is a strong voice in Washington for the people of New Hampshire. It's a pleasure to see you, Congressman.

President Bush and the First Lady send their greetings and best wishes to the Council and its guests.

The President is truly humbled that you've chosen to honor him with the "Keeping the Dream Alive" Award. For more than four decades, the dreams of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King have inspired this nation and her leaders. Without question, they inspire our President. I see it each day in his commitment to lifting up every American, so they have the opportunity to succeed and lead the life of their choosing.

Again, the President thanks you for this great honor.

If you're going to fully appreciate my message this evening, you need to know a little bit more about me and the life-changing experiences that shaped who I am today.

You see, I have a unique understanding of the life and work of Dr. King, and it doesn't come from reading the history books. It comes from living the history, and being at the front lines of what was a dramatic and difficult time for this country.

I was just 18 years old in 1965, a freshman at Lincoln University of Pennsylvania. At the request of Dr. King's top aide, I left college and traveled to Alabama to help organize a massive voter registration drive. At that time, even though the Civil Rights Act had been signed into law the previous year, far too many blacks were being denied the right to vote. For example, Selma, Alabama had a population of nearly 30,000 in 1965, and a majority of those 30,000 men and women were black, yet the city's voting rolls were 99 percent white.

Dr. King intended to bring this inequality to the attention of the nation. Many young people like me answered his call and went to Alabama, and joined the more seasoned members of the civil rights movement to register black voters. This was the first time that many of us had embraced a cause bigger than ourselves, and it was a transforming moment.

Yet, it was equally horrifying in a way I will never forget.

On the morning of Sunday, March 7 - a day that would become known as "Bloody Sunday" - I stood with my friend John Lewis and nearly 600 others on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. We had planned to march peacefully to the state capitol in Montgomery to focus attention on the injustice of blacks being shut out of the democratic process.

But 200 state troopers met us on that bridge. They ordered us to leave. When we didn't, they attacked us without provocation - with whips, nightsticks, tear gas, dogs, and electric cattle prods. More than 50 marchers were injured. Sixteen were hospitalized. We marched no further on that Bloody Sunday.

That day, however, the nation had indeed been watching. The images of what happened to us on that bridge were broadcast around the country, and Americans were outraged. With federal protection, and led by Dr. King, we finally made the march from Selma to Montgomery later that month.

President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act less than five months later.

I still carry a scar with me from that day on the Edmund Pettus Bridge - a literal scar on my leg, where a dog tore into my flesh. But I took something even more powerful away from my experiences in Selma and my work with Dr. King and the voter registration drive.

At the same time I was learning about the inhumanity of man, and the depths of suffering that one man can inflict upon another, I was also seeing the humanity of man. Through the lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King, I saw how the actions of one man of peace could inspire courage, humility, and compassion in a nation. I learned the importance of upholding the ideals of equality and justice for all upon which this nation was founded. I came to understand that every person in this country - regardless of their color, religion, race, or beliefs - is entitled to the promise of America and their own pursuit of the American Dream.

When we honor Dr. King on this federal holiday, we honor not only the man himself, but all those who have followed in his footsteps.

Because of the sacrifices of so many, we've made great progress since the difficult days of the 1960s in ending racial discrimination, promoting fairness, and creating a nation where equality of opportunity isn't just a catch phrase, but a reality. I'm proud to be working for a President who is so strongly committed to keeping Dr. King's dream alive and building on the achievements of those who came before.

I know President Bush, and I know him well, and I can tell you that his commitment to diversity is deeply held. He considers America's diversity to be one of this nation's greatest strengths. Yes, Americans are united by a shared belief in freedom, opportunity, and the God-given dignity of every person, but America is very much a product of the many diverse races and cultures that have taken root here. We celebrate our differences, and our nation is far richer because of it.

Those differences are reflected in the faces of the men and women the President has chosen to serve at his side. Around the Cabinet table, you'll find Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, and Education Secretary Rod Paige. All are black Americans, although I can assure you that none is serving on the Cabinet on the basis of their race. Their appointments weren't political payback either.

Overall, the Bush Administration has appointed more minorities to senior level management positions than any other Administration in our history.

I've seen the President's commitment to diversity in other ways as well. I saw it when he was Governor of Texas and I served as Chairman of the state's General Services Commission. Governor Bush called on us to open up the government contracting process and make it representative of society - not through quotas and set-asides, but by making sure that minority firms had an equal opportunity to compete for state business.

Make the process fair, he said.

The President did the same thing once he arrived in Washington. Early on, he made it clear to every federal agency that contracts would be open to all Americans. We've embraced that mandate at HUD  - we used to be in third place, but today we're leading the largest federal agencies in the percentage of contract dollars we award to minority small businesses.

Dr. King's legacy of equal opportunity lives on at HUD in many, many ways, and his dreams for this nation are deeply woven into both our history and our ongoing work. I feel tremendously blessed to serve an agency that touches many of the same principles Dr. King fought for during his lifetime by helping the voiceless find their voice, the powerless find power, and the hopeless find hope.

Legislation passed by Congress just one week after Dr. King's assassination  - the Fair Housing Act - rests at the very heart of much of HUD's work. By ending the illegal practice of housing discrimination, the Fair Housing Act served as a fitting tribute to a man who fought for fairness and equality in all aspects of society.

HUD is proud to be the federal agency charged with administering and enforcing this critically important law. HUD's work has ensured that fair housing is now central to the American way of life. And under the leadership of President Bush, our national commitment to creating equal housing opportunities for all Americans is as strong today as it was under President Johnson in 1968.

We've made steady progress in ridding our communities of housing discrimination, but this nation has not yet reached the point where discrimination is a thing of the past. Recent studies tell us that minorities continue to face intolerable discrimination from mortgage lenders, real estate agents, and apartment rental agents.

To fight back, the President has asked Congress to fund the fair housing budget at its highest level ever: $50 million to assist our partners in targeting discrimination and educating people about their fair housing rights.

I've had the privilege of serving at HUD during a time of unprecedented strength in the housing industry. Housing remains an engine of the nation's economy, home sales and construction records continue to fall, and more people than ever before have access to the American Dream of homeownership. In fact, the homeownership rate in America has never been higher than it is today.

That's great news, because homeownership is the single most powerful tool for helping families achieve economic security and independence.

Yet, despite our success, blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities aren't sharing equally in the homeownership dream. In fact, there's a "homeownership gap" in this country, and minority families are far less likely to own a home.

President Bush is very concerned about the minority homeownership gap, and he's focused on closing it. He believes that people from every walk of life should have an opportunity to own their own home. So the President took the bold step of challenging the nation to create 5.5 million new minority homeowners by the end of this decade.

We're well on our way to reaching that goal. In fact, in the 18 months since the President issued his homeownership challenge, more than one million minority families have put out the welcome mat at their new homes.

We're closing the gap through new legislation like the American Dream Downpayment Act, which the President signed into law last month. The law was the centerpiece of the Administration's homeownership agenda, and now that it's in place, we'll be able to help 40,000 families every year cross the down payment barrier.

We've got a full plate for the year and I'm excited about the possibilities and opportunities we're creating for folks like the Arias family. We met them a year ago at the White House Conference on Increasing Minority Homeownership. Mr. and Mrs. Arias came here as immigrants from Peru and wanted to own their own home, but faced tremendous obstacles. They didn't speak English. They had no credit history. They didn't even know how to begin the process of buying a home.

But they enrolled in a homebuyer education program funded through HUD and became homeowners just 18 months after arriving in this country.

If the Arias family can do it, any family can.

Our push to expand homeownership, our dedication to ending housing discrimination, our focus on opening HUD's contracting dollars to more minority businesses - each of these efforts builds upon the work undertaken so many years ago by Dr. Martin Luther King, Roy Wilkins, Rosa Parks, John Lewis, Medgar Evers, and the other giants of the civil rights movement. And it does this in a very profound way, because we are no longer spending dollars in the name of minority and low-income Americans while leaving them to wallow in hopelessness. We are lifting them toward self-sufficiency, which I firmly believe is the road to salvation for all low-income people, especially African Americans.

I'm confident that Dr. King would approve of our work. And I'm proud to once again be pursuing a cause that is truly bigger than ourselves - and one that is so fundamental to the American ideals of liberty and opportunity.

We've traveled a long and unpredictable path from Selma, 1965, to this time and place. Black Americans no longer stand in a valley, although I can't claim we've seen the mountaintop, either. Racial prejudice remains a reality in America. However, nearly 40 years after Selma, the literacy tests that once denied blacks access to the voting booth are a thing of the past. Colleges and universities are welcoming a more diverse student body. A man of color can stand before you as Acting Secretary of a Cabinet-level federal agency. And the American Dream itself is within reach of more blacks, Hispanics, and Asian Americans than ever before in the history of this great nation.

Each of us owes a debt of gratitude to the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King for lifting America out of its shameful past. He was like a meteor that far too briefly lit up the night sky, but the trail he left is one that we still follow.