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STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES, GOALS, AND COMMITMENTS
EMERGENCY CONVOCATION: THE URBAN COALITION
We are experiencing our third summer of widespread civil dis-
order. In 1965, it was Harlem, and the disaster of Watts. In 1966, it was
the Hough area of Cleveland, Omaha, Atlanta, Dayton, San Francisco and
24 other cities. This summer, Newark and Detroit were only the most tragic
of 80 explosions of violence in the streets.
Confronted by these catastrophic events, we, as representatives
of business, labor, religion, civil rights, and local government, have joined
in this Convocation to create a sense of national urgency on the need for
positive action for all the people of our cities.
We are united in the following convictions:
We believe the tangible effects of the urban riots in terms of
death, injury, and property damage, horrifying though they are, are less to
be feared than the intangible damage to men's minds.
We believe it is the government's duty to maintain law and order.
We believe that our thoughts and actions should be directed
to the deep-rooted and historic problems of the cities.
We believe that we, as a nation. must clearly and positively
demonstrate our belief that justice, social progress, and equality of oppor-
tunity are rights of every citizen.
We believe the American people and the Congress must reorder
national priorities, with a commitment of resources equal to the magnitude
of the problems we face, The crisis requires a new dimension of effort in
both the public and private sectors, working together to provide jobs, housing,
STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES, GOALS, AND COMMITMENTS
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education , and the other needs of our cities.
We believe the Congress must move without delay on urban
programs. The country can wait no longer for measures that have too long
been denied the people of the cities and the nation as a whole--additional
civil rights legislation, adequately funded model cities, anti-poverty,
housing, education, and job-training programs, and a host of others.
We believe the private sector of America must directly and
vigorously involve itself in the crisis of the cities by a commitment to
investment, job-training, and hiring, and all that is necessary to the full
enjoyment of the free enterprise system--and also to its survival.
We believe the sickness of the cities, including civic disorder
within them, is the responsibility of the whole of America. Therefore, it
is the responsibility of every American to join in the creation of a new
political, social, economic, and moral climate that will make possible the
breaking of the vicious cycle of the ghetto. Efforts must/ be made to insure
the broadest possible opportunity for all citizens and groups, including
those in the ghetto, to participate fully in shaping and directing the society
of which they are a part.
This Convocation calls upon the nation to end once and for all
the shame of poverty amid general affluence. Government and business must
accept responsibility to provide all Americans with opportunity to earn an
adequate income. Private industry must greatly accelerate its efforts to