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ADDRESS

By Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
President, National Urban League, Inc.

at EQUAL OPPORTUNITY DAY DINNER
N.U.L., Inc.—N.Y. Hilton Hotel, N.Y., N.Y.

November 19, 1981

In keeping with the spirit of this Thanksgiving season, I would like to express my thanks to a lot of people tonight. First, to Ralph Davidson for chairing this Dinner and to the members of the Dinner Committee who have all done such a fine job. My thanks too, to Gary Bloom and Mildred Hall, our excellent staff people who put this dinner together. In fact, Mildred gets twenty-five thanks yous—one for each of the EOD Dinners she has helped organize. And thanks to all of you for coming—we couldn't have a Dinner without you.

And to Cliff Garvin and Carl Holman, our EOD Award recipients, special thanks for their proven dedication to the ideals of equal opportunity.

Each in his own way has made a difference. Each has lit a candle of hope in a world darkened by discrimination and racism. Each has trod the path of leadership, one in the private sector, one in the nonprofit, voluntary sector.

And it is those two sectors that today bear an increasing responsibility in America. It is to those sectors that minorities and poor people must turn, absent a federal government that cares.

Last year we met in the wake of Ronald Reagan's sweeping electoral victory. In the twelve months since then, President Reagan has proved to be the first President in memory who actually kept most of his campaign promises.

Given the substance of those promises, that is unfortunate. The promise of cut spending was fulfilled—but mainly for the affluent. The promise of less regulation was fulfilled—especially in civil rights enforcement.

If a mood of gloom and doom pervades the minority community today, it is because the President has many more promises to keep. Those promises could gut social security, take more food out of the mouths of the poor, and drive the needy through the safety net.

And in the process, the entire economy could be wrecked. So far this supply side Administration has managed to supply more poverty, more recession, and more unemployment.

Mr. Stockman's embarrassing admission that "supply side economics" is just a fancy dress ball version of old-fashioned trickle-down  economics is true. And like the older versions of trickle-down, it is leading to a full flood of hardship for the most vulnerable people in our society.

So it is now time for a greater stress on the demand side—demanding more positive action on civil rights, demanding clear, unequivocal support for extension of the Voting Rights Acts of 1965, demanding more for investment in our nation's human resources.

The demands are rising for business action as well. With one hand the government took away lifeline programs from the poor. With the other it gave enormous tax breaks to American business. The private sector took those tax breaks eagerly. In Mr. Stockman's words, "The hogs were really feeding. The greed level, the level of opportunism, just got out of control." And many of the people who indulged their greed are the same ones who scream about welfare waste!

The tax breaks business wanted—and got—come with invisible strings attached. With privilege comes responsibility. With the billions handed on a plate comes the moral, economic and political responsibility to help those whose food was brutally taken off their plates.

So the private sector today faces demands for job creation, training opportunities, and greater support for voluntary sector institutions that meet the needs of the community.

Those agencies in the nonprofit sector face increased demands as well. The same budget cuts that increase the numbers of people who need their services also weaken their ability to meet those needs. The voluntary sector is forced to try to do more with less.

In a sense the burdens on the voluntary sector are the opposite of those on the private sector. The private sector's responsibility was defined many years ago by John F. Kennedy when he said "Of those to whom much is given, much is required." Of the voluntary sector, we might now say: "of those to whom less is given, more is required."

We enter then, a period of tremendous pressures on the one sector of our society that must bind wounds without enough bandages, heal without enough medicine, kindle hope without enough opportunities to offer.

A hard task. Some will not suvive [[survive]]. They will sink in a sea of indifference. The agencies in the nonprofit sector That [[that]] survive this time of testing will be those that provide necessary services, that have roots in the community, that are accountable and well managed.

That is why the Urban League will survive. We will survive because we've been here before. We've known hard times—for our constituents and for our affiliates. We've been through payless paydays. We've been through depressions, recessions, hate campaigns by white citizens councils, and more. We've been through federal cutbacks. We have been around for seventy-one years and we will continue to be around so long as black people and the nation need us. 

Our roots are in the community—in 118 cities where we serve the needs of black and minority and poor people, with or without federal contracts. We were providing services backed by private philanthropy when Ronald Reagan was shooting westerns. We will continue to do so while he is shooting holes in poor people's programs.

In this era when the phrase "self-help" comes so freely from the mouths of those who never knew poverty, we remind the nation that black people have been helping themselves throughout our history. The Urban League is one example.

Continued on page 297

[[image]]
[[caption]] Model of the NBL Headquarters Building to be erected at 9th Street and Maine Avenue, S.W., which will include a rooftop terrace, parking facilities, a restaurant, meeting facilities, as well as office space for other national minority trade associations. [[/caption]]

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