Robert F. Kennedy

“ From the Congo to Cuba, from South Viet Nam to Algiers, in India, Brazil and Iran, men, women, and children are straightening their backs and listening to the evil promises of Communist tyranny, and the honorable promises of Anglo American liberty. And those people will decide not only their own future, but ours; how the cause of freedom fares around the world. That will be their decision.
In the United States, we are striving to establish a rule of law instead of a rule of force. ”

“ We must come forward with the answer of how a nation devoted to freedom and individual rights and respect for the law can stand effectively against an implacable enemy who plays by different rules and knows only the law of the jungle. With the answer to this rests our future, our destiny as a nation and as a people. The events of the last few weeks have demonstrated that the time has long since passed when the people of the United States can be apathetic, about their belief and respect for the law, and about the necessity of placing our own house in order. ”

“ For on this generation of Americans falls the full burden of proving to the world that we — we really mean when we say — we really mean it when we say that all men are created free and equal before the law. ”

“ We know that we can not live together without rules which tell us what is right and what is wrong, what is permitted and what is prohibited. We know that it is law which enables man to live together, that creates order out of chaos. We know that law is the glue that holds civilization together. ”

“ All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world but we don't. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity. To the South, perhaps more than any other section of the country, has been given the opportunity and the challenge and the responsibility of demonstrating America at its greatest — at its full potential of liberty under law. ”

“ The time has long since arrived when loyal Americans must measure the impact of their actions beyond the limits of their own towns or states. For instance, we must be quite aware of the fact that fifty percent of the countries in the United Nations are not white; that around the world in Africa, South America, and Asia, peoples whose skins are a different color than ours are on the move to gain their measure of freedom and of liberty. ”

“ And we know that if one man's rights are denied, the rights of all of us are in danger.
In our country the courts have a most important role in safeguarding these rights. The decisions of the courts, however much we might disagree with them, in the final analysis must be followed and must be respected. If we disagree with a court decision, and thereafter irresponsibly assail the court and defy its rulings, we challenge the foundations of our society. The Supreme Court of Georgia set forth this proposition quite clearly in 1949 in the case of Krum [ph] versus the State. ”

“ In too many major communities of our country, organized crime has become big business. It knows no state lines; it drains off millions of dollars of our national wealth, infecting legitimate businesses, labor unions, and even sports. Tolerating organized crime promotes the cheap philosophy that everything is a racket. ”

“ And their children attend private schools where no Negro students are enrolled; union officials who criticize Southern leaders and yet practice discrimination within their own union; government officials belong to private clubs in Washington where Negroes including ambassadors are not welcome even at meal time.
My firm belief is that if we are to make progress in this area, if we are to be truly great as a nation, then we must make sure that nobody is denied an opportunity because of race, creed, or color. We pledge by example to take action in our own back yard, the Department of Justice. ”

“ It is not only that such convulsions seriously undermine respect for law and order and cause serious economic and moral damage. Such incidents hurt our country in the eyes of the world. We just can't afford another Little Rock, or another New Orleans. ”

“ As we turn to meet our enemy, we look him full in the face; we can not afford feet of clay or an arm of glass.
Let me speak to you about three major areas of difficulty within the purview of my responsibilities that sap our national strength, that weaken our people, that require our immediate attention. ”

“ Unless the basic attitude changes here in this country, the rackets will prosper and grow. Of this I am convinced. The racketeers after all are professional criminals. [They] are also the amateurs, men who have law abiding backgrounds and respectable positions, who nevertheless break the law of the land. ”

“ But in the end this also is not a situation which can be cured by the Department of Justice. It can only be cured by business and unions themselves.
The third area is the one that affects us all the most directly — the field of civil rights. The hardest problem of all in law enforcement are those involving a conflict of law and local customs. History has recorded many occasions when the moral sense of a nation produced judicial decisions such as the 1954 decision in Brown versus the Board of Education which required difficult local adjustments. ”

“ Southerners have a special respect for candor and plain talk. They don't like hypocrisy. So in discussing this third major problem, I must tell you candidly what our policies are going to be in the field of civil rights and why. ”

“ National unity is essential, and before taking any legal action, we will, where appropriate, invite the southern leaders to make their views known in these cases. We, the American people, must avoid another Little Rock, or another New Orleans. ”