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"Promoting Civil and Human Rights Around The World" |
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By
Gerald R. Ford Of
all the triumphs that have marked this as America's century --
breathtaking advances in science and technology, the democratization
of wealth and dispersal of political power in ways hardly imaginable
in 1899 -- none is more inspiring, if incomplete, than our pursuit
of racial justice. The milestones include Theodore Roosevelt's
inviting Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House, Harry
Truman's desegregating the armed forces, Dwight Eisenhower's using
Federal troops to integrate Little Rock's Central High School and
Lyndon Johnson's electrifying the nation by standing before Congress
in 1965 and declaring, "We shall overcome." I
came by my support of that year's Voting Rights Act naturally.
Thirty years before Selma, I was a University of Michigan senior,
preparing with my Wolverine teammates for a football game against
visiting Georgia Tech. Among the best players on that year's
Michigan squad was Willis Ward, a close friend of mine whom the
Southern school reputedly wanted dropped from our roster because he
was black. My classmates were just as adamant that he should take
the field. In the end, Willis decided on his own not to play. His
sacrifice led me to question how educational administrators could
capitulate to raw prejudice. A university, after all, is both a
preserver of tradition and a hotbed of innovation. So long as books
are kept open we tell ourselves, minds can never be closed. But
doors, too, must be kept open. Tolerance, breadth of mind and
appreciation for the world beyond our neighborhoods: these can be
learned on the football field and in the science lab as well as in
the lecture hall. But only if students are exposed to America in all
her variety. For
the class of '35, such educational opportunities were diminished by
the relative scarcity of African-Americans, women and various ethnic
groups on campus. I have often wondered how different the world
might have been in the 1940's. 50's and 60's -- how much more humane
and just -- if my generation had experienced a more representative
sampling of the American family. That the indignities visited on
Willis Ward would be unimaginable in today's Ann Arbor is a measure
of how far we have come toward realizing however belatedly the
promises we made to each other in declaring our nationhood and
professing our love of liberty. And
yet. In the last speech of his life, Lyndon, Johnson reminded us of
how much unfinished work remained. "To be black in a white
society is not to stand on level and equal ground," he said.
"While the races may stand side by side, whites stand on
history's mountain and blacks stand in history's hollow. Until we
overcome unequal history, we cannot overcome unequal opportunity. Like
so many phrases that have become political buzzwords, affirmative
action means different things to different people. Practically
speaking, it runs the gamut from mandatory quotas, which the Supreme
Court has ruled are clearly unconstitutional to mere lip service,
which is just as clearly unacceptable. At
its core, affirmative action should try to offset past injustices by
fashioning a campus population more truly reflective of modern
America and our hopes for the future. Unfortunately, a pair of
lawsuits brought against my alma mater pose a threat to such
diversity. Not content to oppose formal quotas, plaintiffs suing the
University of Michigan would prohibit that and other universities
from even considering race as one of many factors weighed by
admission counselors. So
drastic a ban would scuttle Michigan's current system one that takes
into account nearly a dozen elements -- race, economic standing,
geographic origin, athletic and artistic achievement among them --
to create the finest educational environment for all students. This
eminently reasonable approach, as thoughtful as it is fair, has
produced a student body with a significant minority component whose
record of academic success is outstanding. Times
of change are times of challenge. It is estimated that by 2030, 40
percent of all Americans will belong to various racial minorities.
Already the global economy requires unprecedented grasp of diverse
viewpoints and cultural traditions. I don't want future college
students to suffer the cultural and social impoverishment that
afflicted my generation. If history has taught us anything in this
remarkable century, it is the notion of America as a work in
progress. Do
we really want to risk turning back the clock to an era when the
Willis Wards were isolated and penalized for the color of their
skin, their economic standing or national ancestry? To
eliminate a constitutional affirmative action policy would mock the
inclusive vision Carl Sandburg had in mind when he wrote: "The
Republic is a dream. Nothing happens unless first a dream."
Lest we forget: America remains a nation with have-nots as well as
haves. Its government is obligated to provide for hope no less than
for the common defense. http://www.ford.utexas.edu/LIBRARY/SPEECHES/990808.asp
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Member of the Month |
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Michael Thomas Cash is currently the Executive Director of the Fairfax County, Virginia, Human Rights Commission. He has served in the human rights field for more than 28 years in both Fairfax County, VA and Durham, NC. Previous to that service he served as a United Methodist Minister in the North Carolina Conference for nine years. He is a past president of the Virginia Association for Human Rights. Click here for complete Bio |
