FAREWELL ADDRESS TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY 997

session we enacted statutes which placed Maryland in the vanguard of
states pressing for social justice.

The repeal of the century-old Anti-Miscegenation Law eradicated
an illogical and dictatorial clause from State marriage laws. The
Fair Housing Law marked the first positive measure of its type
enacted by a state south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Its subsequent
defeat at referendum cannot diminish our pride in principled leader-
ship. We acted out of conscience to right an historic wrong.

I share with you pride and satisfaction in the expansion of Mary-
land's public accommodations statutes. While the law became aca-
demic because of Federal legislation which intercepted it, the effort
was tremendously important for it expressed Maryland's overt com-
mitment to equal rights for all.

Executive initiative in the field of human rights has, I believe, been
without precedent. Even before inauguration, I established the Ad-
visory Committee on Human Rights to assist in the development of
legislation in this sphere. For the first time, a Negro was appointed
to the Governor's personal staff and auxiliary personnel were inte-
grated in the Governor's Office. I was the first Governor to seek out
the advice and guidance of the nation's most responsible black leader-
ship. And, in accordance with that advice, Maryland's first Governor's
Code of Fair Practices was prepared and promulgated.

We have worked earnestly to advance social justice through service
as well as statute. We have won many small victories and suffered
some serious defeats. Since I took office, Maryland's welfare budget
has increased |20 million. We have provided additional allowances
for foster care and food. The State for the first time paid transporta-
tion costs for the indigent blind to medical clinics and appropriated
operating funds for Day Care Centers for children. A Crash Job
Program was established in Baltimore City and, subsequently, a model
Job Training Center which draws upon the best talents of our pri-
vate and public sectors was opened. In Cambridge, we have moved
ahead in attracting new industry and developing low income housing.

But, notwithstanding our progress, Baltimore, Cambridge and Salis-
bury have suffered serious civil disorders.

If I am to be fair in my review of the record — fair to my ad-
ministration, to the General Assembly and to Maryland's citizens —
I must speak in terms of pain as well as pride.

Watching a city burn, walking through blocks obliterated as if by
bombs from an enemy air attack, is painful. One cannot emerge from