Summary

President Clinton addressed the National Bar Association on the group's Call to Action day in Washington The President called on the legal community to build racial diversity , close race-based opportunity gaps and lead the nation in what he calls building a one America

Source CONUS Archive
Record ID 251152
Story Slug President Bill Clinton / National Bar (1999)
Location WASHINGTON, DC
Format TVD
Date 07/20/1999
Archive Time :28
TRT 3:39
Video Description President Bill Clinton speaking
Description President Clinton addressed the National Bar Association on the group's Call to Action day in Washington The President called on the legal community to build racial diversity , close race-based opportunity gaps and lead the nation in what he calls building a one America
Script (SUGGESTED TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO) President Kennedy called more than 200 of America's leading lawyers to this room 36 years ago, the summer of 1963 when America was awakening to the fact that in our laws and in our hearts, we were still far short of our ideals It is difficult today to imagine an America without civil rights But when I came here 36 years ago, in the summer of 1963, as a delegate to American Legion, Boys Nation, there were only for African American boys there And the hottest issue was what we were going to do about civil rights Justice, your predecessors with the Constitution as their shield, stare down the sheriff's of segregation, you must step forward to dismantle our times most stubborn obstacles to equal justice, poverty, unemployment, and yes, continuing discrimination But we have to get them in the classroom So if the research says it's a good idea, if we voted to do it, if we've already funded 30,000 of the teachers, why in the world would we turn around and reverse field, the people who want to kill the 100,000 teacher initiative, say they want to do it, because they want to improve the quality of the existing Teacher Corps? Well, I'm for that, and we set aside sumps to do it But that shouldn't be a cover for the fact that we've got to do more to lower class size in the early grades, especially for our poorest children, especially for our minority children, especially for all these children whose first language is not even English I also believe very strongly, that it would be wrong to pass a risky tax scheme before we first fund education, and make sure we can save Social Security and Medicare, something that also has a big impact on minority communities in our country And will have a huge impact on the ability of the baby boom generation to retire in dignity, without imposing new burdens on their children and their grandchildren, just as many of them are moving into the middle class for the first time in their family's history One of the best things Dr King ever said was that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice Our nation's lawyers have bent that arc toward justice Our nation has been transformed for the better So I asked you again to lead us along that arc From the America we know the One America we all long to live in
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