|
Three out of ten Negro families live in
sub-standard housing. A half million Negro
families live in rural areas of the country,
including the counties of Maryland, where
education and housing and health stand-
ards are far below the minimum standards
of decency.
In 1966, forty-three percent of the Negro
draftees were rejected by reason of failure
to pass the health and educational qualifica-
tions test, while the rate of rejection among
white draftees was eight percent. Although
Negro citizens comprise eleven percent of
the national population, they are nine per-
cent of the U. S. Armed Forces in Viet
Nam now. It is interesting to note that in
the first half of 1967, it had risen to eleven
percent, and fifteen percent of those who
have died in the Viet Nam combat are
Negroes.
In our history the Negro soldier has
never failed his country, and they are to-
day in the jungle outposts and in the front
line of battle defending the principles for
which we stand as a nation and as a State.
Some of them will never return to their
homeland. Some will return with wounds
that will prevent them from being a pro-
ductive part of society. Others will come
back full of hope and expectation that
their country will assure to them all of the
great ideals that they have been fighting
to preserve in the far corners of the world,
the ideals for which our nation stands.
We can honor the dead, we can thank
the wounded, but this Convention can re-
assure the living that in Maryland we are
determined to make a proud and meaning-
ful contribution to the protection of all
persons without regard to race, religion or
national origin.
The federal language presented by the
majority of the Committee is a good faith
attempt by sincere persons to place the
State on record in support of equal rights.
And though the language is fine as far as
it goes, it looks backwards to the condi-
tions of 1868 when the 14th Amendment
was enacted and when segregation by cus-
tom and usage resulted in exclusion from
many of the ordinary facilities and benefits
that are available to the majority of
citizens.
The language of the majority does not
face up to the fact that, in spite of the
14th Amendment, it is still lawful in Mary-
land to acquire land, build housing and
offer it for sale to the general public but
then to say that no colored citizen, no mat-
ter how trained he may be, no matter what
|
his military record or his moral character
is, may buy or rent a home.
It is still possible, under the language
proposed by the majority, for services to
be offered to the general public in many
public facilities of the State except to those
whose skins are of a darker hue. While
the national trend indicates that these re-
strictions will ultimately fall under court
attack, we have seen the painfully slow
process by which they have fallen one by
one and only after long and costly strug-
gles on the part of the minority group. For
those white citizens who understand that,
this is a mutual problem.
Let us then not wait in Maryland. There
is an ominous chorus of strident voices in
the wings of history today. It is not large
but it is a reckless and a destructive group.
It repudiates democracy. It comes out of
desperation and despair. It argues that
faith in law is useless. It argues that we
cannot be one State or one nation, and it
says we must be divided by faith and
ancestry.
They have lost faith in the power of our
constitution. An expressed declaration in
the State's constitution and the State's
commitment will help us substitute the sub-
poena for the Molotov Cocktail. It will help
us substitute the affirmative action of
prompt and progressive state legislature
and executive leadership for ashes of
burned-out buildings. We have a duty to
erect a bulwark in our constitution for all
the world to see against intolerance and in-
justice in any form.
Each year thousands of visitors come to
our State and see our historic shrines and
visit our Naval Academy. They observe our
conduct with the hope of finding examples
of how democracy can work. We have a
solemn opportunity to confirm our nation's
commitment to the liberty, equality and
dignity of mankind.
And finally, there is a book which has
just been published by a great religious
leader, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize,
who commits again the colored citizens of
this nation to non-violence. But he talks of
the ambivalence in our State and our na-
tion which gives all of us great concern.
There is a long and intellectual recogni-
tion by all of us that racial discrimination
and segregation is wrong, but the emo-
tional tie to the system is so deep that it
is hard to develop the will to prune it out.
Thomas Jefferson had the same ambiv-
alence. He was a brilliant political leader
and as Mr. King points out, he came close
|
