“The struggle for civil rights and the war against poverty are [...] all part of the same battle. [...] The American nation exists for [the] purpose of opening opportunity for its people. To the extent we have failed as a country and as a people. This is a great land, and it has achieved much for many. But if it is to fulfill the promise we have always held, it will now go forward and offer fulfillment to all.”
Our Quote of the Week links together two battles that were central to Sargent Shriver’s work: one to achieve civil rights, and the other to end poverty for all Americans.
Our quote is from Sargent Shriver’s March 1964 Address to the United Negro College Fund Symposium, an early speech from Sarge’s leadership of the War on Poverty. Although the poverty programs (Community Action, Head Start, Upward Bound, Job Corps, VISTA, Legal Services, and Foster Grandparents) did not yet exist when Sargent Shriver spoke these words, the transcript shows us that he had a vision for what the programs could be and what they could achieve.
Note that in the speech, Sargent Shriver looks at poverty in the United States through the lens of race. Although he acknowledges that economic deprivation knows no racial boundaries, he also stresses that the country’s history of racial violence and discrimination has made poverty more widespread among Black Americans.
With his words, Sargent Shriver reminds us that the efforts to achieve equal opportunity for all must include an awareness of historical economic injustice and discrimination, and an ability to address these with our policies and our actions as leaders, citizens, and neighbors.
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