林頓‧B．約翰遜
(LYNDON B. JOHNSON)

在霍華德大學的演說
Howard University Address

   你不能找一個多年鐵鏈鎖腳的人，將他釋放，把他帶到比賽起跑線上然後說：「你可以自由地與別人競爭了。」

    當約翰‧F．甘迺迪遇刺後，林頓‧約翰遜 (1908－1973)任總統。當時最緊迫的國內問題是公民權，而約翰遜成了一位卓有成效的社會立法──他稱其為自己的「大社會」方案──的鼓吹者。國會對他的倡導作出反應，通過了一項重要的民權法令、聯邦援助教育計劃、反貧困方案以及聯邦保護選舉權的規定。

    1965年6月4日約翰遜在霍華德大學作就職演說，解釋為什麼法律平等仍不足以滿足美國黑人完全參與美國社會事務的願望。約翰遜希望以他對美國人民的健康、教育、福利作出的貢獻流芳百世。但是他的政府陷入越南戰爭的泥潭，那場戰爭耗費了他的精力和全國預算中的很大一筆開支。任總統一屆期滿後，他不再競選下一任總統。

    從許許多多方面看，美國黑人已成為另－個民族，他們被剝奪了自由，被仇恨所折磨，沒有希望跨入機會之門。 

    在我們的時代，這個國家業已發生變化。美國黑人以感人的克制態度舉行和平抗議和進軍，進入了審判室和政府席位，要求享有長期得不到的公正。黑人的聲音呼喚著行動。但我們應讚頌美國，因為一旦被喚醒，它的法庭和國會，總統和大多數人民都是進步的同盟者。……

   選舉權法案將是一系列眾多勝利中最近、最重要的一個勝利。然而這一勝利──正如溫斯頓‧邱吉爾談及另一自由的勝利時所說──「不是結束。它甚至不是結束的開端。但它或許是開端的結束。」 

    這開端便是自由；封鎖這自由的屏障正在倒坍。自由即是完全平等地共同享有美國社會的權利──有權投票、就業、進入公共場所、上學讀書。它是這樣一種權利：在我們國家生活的每一方面被當作在尊嚴和前途上與他人平等的一個人。

   但僅僅自由還不夠。你不能講這麼一句話便把幾個世紀的傷疤抹去：現在你可以自由地去自己想去的地方，做自己想做的事情，選自己擁護的領袖了。你不能找一個多年鐵鏈鎖腳的人，將它釋放，把他帶到比賽起跑線上然後說：「你可以自由地與別人競爭了，」而且仍自信你做得完全公平。

   因此開啟機會的大門還不夠。我們所有的公民必須有能力走進這些大門。 

    這是爭取民權的戰鬥下一個，而且是意義更深刻的階段。我們不僅追求自由，而且追求機會。我們不僅追求法律公平，而且追求人的能力，不僅追求作為權利和理論的平等，而且追求作為事實和結果的平等。……

   當然，美國黑人與美國白人一樣已分享我國不斷增長的財富。但嚴酷的事實是，在爭取真正平等的戰鬥中，每天有很多人──太多人──正丟失陣地。

   我們並不完全確信已弄明箇中原因。我們明白原因是複雜微妙的。但我們確實知道兩大基本理由，而且我們知道我們必須行動。

   第一，黑人──同許多白人一樣──陷於從上一代傳下來的，毫無出路的貧困之中。他們缺乏訓練，缺少技能。他們被封閉在貧民窟中，得不到正規醫療。個人窮困和公眾窮困結合，更削弱了他們的能力。

   我們正通過反貧困方案、教育計劃、醫療和其他衛生計劃，以及另外12項針對這種貧窮根源的大社會方案，盡力剷除這些不幸。

   我們將在未來的歲月中加重、加快、加大對貧困根源的進攻，直到這最頑固的敵人最後向我們頑強不屈的意志投降。

   但是還有第二個原因──更難解釋，更加根深蒂固，更加咄咄逼人。它是長期奴隸制度劫掠性的傳統以及一個世紀的壓迫、仇恨和不公。

   因為黑人的貧困不是白人的貧困。貧困的許多原因和對策相同。但是存在著差別──深刻的、頑固的差別──把痛苦的根系深深紮入社區，紮入性格。 

    這些差別不是種族差異。它們僅只是古老的暴行、往昔的不公和當今偏見的後果。觀察它們是令人痛苦的事。對黑人來說，它們不斷提醒他們記住壓迫。對白人而言，它們不斷提醒他們有罪。但是必須面對它們，必須對付它們，必須克服它們，如果我們要爭取這一天的到來，那時黑人與白人之間唯一的差別在他們的膚色。

   我們也不能在其他美國少數民族的經驗中找到圓滿的回答。他們作出了勇敢的、相當成功的努力以衝出貧窮和偏見的樊籬。

   黑人同這些少數民族一樣，將不能不主要依靠自己的努力。但是黑人不能單獨行動。因為其他少數民族沒有需要克服的若干世紀的遺產，沒有被經年累月的仇恨與絕望所扭曲和摧殘的文化傳統，也沒有因種族或膚色遭排斥──這種被排斥的感覺是我們社會任何偏見造成的痛苦所無法相比的。

   這些差別也不能理解為互相孤立的弱點。它們是一張緊密的網。它們互為因果，相輔相成。

   黑人社會多半被埋在歷史和環境的毯子下。只抓起這毯子的一角不是個永久解決辦法。如果我們要解放我們的黑人同胞，我們就必須站在四周掀開整個覆蓋物。……

   或許最重要的－－其影響遍及生活的各方面──是黑人家庭結構的解體。對於這一點，美國白人社會應負主要責任。它源於若干世紀對美國黑人的壓迫和迫害。它源於經年累月的貶礎與歧視，這損傷了他的尊嚴，削弱了他為自己家庭從事生產的能力。……

   家庭是我們社會的基石。家庭比其他力量更多地決定一個孩子的態度、希望、志向和價值觀念的形成。當家庭解體時，往往總是孩子遭殃。當家庭崩潰大規模發生時，社會本身遭到損害。 

    因此，除非我們努力鞏固家庭，創造使大多數父母白頭偕老的條件，任何其他因素──學校、運動場、公共援助或私人關懷──都不足以完全切斷絕望和喪失的循環。

   對所有這些問題沒有一個簡單的答案。就業是部分答案。一份工作的收入使一個人能夠供養家庭。 

    在良好的環境中的良好住房和求學機會──平等的求學機會──是部分答案。

   有利於家庭團聚的福利和制訂得更妥善的社會服務計劃也是部分答案。

   照料病人是部分答案。

   所有美國人的同情心是答案的另一重要組成部分。

   我將把約翰遜政府不斷擴展的努力用於這些戰線及其它許多方面。

In far too many ways American Negroes have been another nation; deprived of freedom, crippled by hatred, the doors of opportunity closed to hope.

      In our time change has come to this nation. The American Negro, acting -with impressive restraint, has peacefully protested and marched, entered the courtrooms and the seats of government, demanding a justice that has long been denied. The voice of the Negro was the call to action. But it is a tribute to America that, once aroused, the courts and the Congress, the President and most of the people, have been the allies of progress. . . .

      The voting rights bill will be the latest, and among the most important, in a long series of victories. But this victory－ as Winston Churchill said of another triumph for freedom－ "is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." That beginning is freedom; and the barriers to that freedom are tumbling down. Freedom is the right to share, share fully and equally, in American society－ to vote, to hold a job, to enter a public place, to go to school. It is the right to be treated in every part of our national life as a person equal in dignity and promise to all others.

      But freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please. You do not take a person who for years has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, "you are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.

      Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates. This is the next and the more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result. . . .

Of course Negro Americans as well as white Americans have shared in our rising national abundance. But the harsh fact of the matter is that in the battle for true equality too many－  far too many－ are losing ground every day. We are not completely sure why this is. We know the causes are complex and subtle. But we do know the two broad basic reasons. And we do know that we have to act.

      First, Negroes are trapped－ as many whites are trapped－ in inherited, gateless poverty. They lack training and skills. They are shut in, in slums, without decent medical care. Private and public poverty combine to cripple their capacities.

      We are trying to attack these evils through our poverty program, through our education program, through our medical care and our other health programs, and a dozen more of the Great Society programs that are aimed at the root causes of this poverty.

      We will increase, and we will accelerate, and we will broaden this attack in years to come until this most enduring of foes finally yields to our unyielding -will.

      But there is a second cause－ much more difficult to explain, more deeply grounded, more desperate in its force. It is the devastating heritage of long years of slavery; and a century of oppression, hatred, and injustice.

      For Negro poverty is not white poverty. Many of its causes and many of its cures are the same. But there are differences－ deep, corrosive, obstinate differences－ radiating painful roots into the community, and into the family, and the nature of the individual.

"These differences are not racial differences. They are solely and simply the consequence of ancient brutality, past injustice, and present prejudice. They are anguishing to observe. For the Negro they are a constant reminder of oppression. For the white they are a constant reminder of guilt. But they must be faced and they must be dealt with and they must be overcome, if we are ever to reach the time when the only difference between Negroes and whites is the color of their skin.

Nor can we find a complete answer in the experience of other American minorities. They made a valiant and a largely successful effort to emerge from poverty and prejudice.

The Negro, like these others, will have to rely mostly upon his own efforts. But he just cannot do it alone. For they did not have the heritage of centuries to overcome, and they did not have a cultural tradition which had been twisted and battered by endless years of hatred and hopelessness, nor were they excluded－ these others－because of race or color－ a feeling whose dark intensity is matched by no other prejudice in our society.

Nor can these differences be understood as isolated infirmities. They are a seamless web. They cause each other. They result from each other. They reinforce each other.

Much of the Negro community is buried under a blanket of history and circumstance. It is not a lasting solution to lift just one corner of that blanket. We must stand on all sides and we must raise the entire cover if we are to liberate our fellow citizens. . . .

Perhaps most important－ its influence radiating to every part of life－ is the breakdown of the Negro family structure. For this, most of all, white America must accept responsibility. It flows from centuries of oppression and persecution of the Negro man. It flows from the long years of degradation and discrimination, which have attacked his dignity and assaulted his ability to produce for his family. . . .

The family is the cornerstone of our society. More than any other force it shapes the attitude, the hopes, the ambitions, and the values of the child. And when the family collapses it is the children that are usually damaged. When it happens on a massive scale the community itself is crippled.

So, unless we work to strengthen the family, to create conditions under which most parents will stay together, all the rest－ schools, and playgrounds, and public assistance, and private concern－ will never be enough to cut completely the circle of despair and deprivation. There it is no single easy answer to all of these problems.

Jobs art part of the answer. They bring the income which permits a man to provide for his family.

Decent homes in decent surroundings and a chance to learn－ an equal chance to learn－ are part of the answer.

Welfare and social programs better designed to hold families together are part of the answer. Care for the sick is part of the answer.

An understanding heart by all Americans is another big part of the answer.

And to all of these fronts－ and a dozen more － I will dedicate the expanding efforts of the Johnson Administration.