CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- SENATE

August 16, 1967

Page 22847

Mr. MONDALE. I thank the Senator from New York for his most useful observations. He has been a leader in the field of human rights from the day he entered the Senate, and he continues to do so.

I am particularly pleased that he made note of one of the most odious characters in American society -- the blockbuster. As the Senator knows, this measure includes a special provision to make those acts by a blockbuster illegal.

As the Senator has stated, the very nature of that technique puts the lie to the argument that a Negro who moves into a neighborhood reduces the value of property, because the blockbuster's whole strategy is based on a theory that is exactly the opposite, and he profits from it.

Second, I believe that the Senator's emphasis on the importance of dignity and the recognition of human worth of every person is fundamental to the argument justifying the need for fair housing.

I am sure the Senator has heard the argument I have heard, that we should be steering shy of this particular approach, that we should deal solely with the economic needs of the ghetto dweller -- his housing, employment, education, parks, recreation, and the rest. Of course, there is no question that we must deal with these matters. The Senator from New York has done just that.

But the big debate going on in the ghetto today concerns an appraisal of the white man and his attitude toward the Negro. Are those black racists who are arguing that "Whitey" hates them, will never relent, will never give up, and intends in no way to give them dignity or opportunity, correct? Or, are the moderate civil rights leaders, who claim that there is a basic decency in the rest of America, correct? I believe that debate is raging in ghetto America today.

I believe one of the things that rankles the Negro more than anything else -- and properly so -- is the deeply embedded and growing practice by which we crowd Negro America into the rotting core of our cities and into the vestiges of the sharecroppers' areas of the South.

Americans must stand up and face this issue squarely, and declare that we intend to have a country in which every American, regardless of race, can live in the housing of his choice if he can afford it.

Mr. JAVITS. I thank the Senator.

Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?

Mr. MONDALE. I yield.

Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the Senator from Minnesota is to be commended for opening up a subject that is at the very heart of the distressing national crisis in our cities. To ignore the subject is to ignore one of the key elements of the solutions which must be found to restore stability, justice, peace, and order to our cities.

Housing is a fundamental human requirement, and it goes to the fundamentals of human aspirations in our country.

The Senator from New York has very properly equated housing aspirations of the individual human being with his desire for dignity. It is also related to his desire for opportunity and security; and because it is related to a search for security in this country -- economic security, physical security -- the subject is wrapped up in conflicting emotions, the emotions of those who seek dignity and opportunity, the emotions of those who think that drive somehow endangers their own opportunities, their own dignity, their own security.

We will not resolve these conflicting emotions by brushing the subject under the table, by hiding from it, by trying to escape from it. The only way we are going to deal with it is to put the subject on the table, discuss it frankly, and discuss it as objectively as we can, and somehow develop public policies which will stimulate Americans of all races and colors to learn to live together.

This is really the heart of the matter. Housing is one of the ways we can learn to live together; and unless we can learn to live together, we will not overcome our fears of each other, our prejudices against each other, and all the other emotions which tend to tempt Americans to become anti-American, in the sense that they are not willing to grant to other Americans the same freedom, the same opportunity, and the same dignity which each of us seeks for himself.

So I commend the distinguished Senator from Minnesota for placing this subject on the table of discussion in the Senate, in this crucial summer of 1967.

Mr. MONDALE. I thank the distinguished Senator from Maine for his important contribution to this colloquy and for his continuing leadership in the field of human rights. I believe the Senator underscores an exceedingly important point when he refers to fears, prejudices, and superstitions that are reflected in the minds of so many Americans when they think of fair housing, when they think of the opportunity of free choice for every American, regardless of color, in the selection of housing; because that is what it is.

When white and black America are separated and live by themselves, they tend to develop fears and caricatures about the others. They tend to lump all white men together, or conversely, all black men together, and develop theories, fears, and anxieties that are totally unrealistic.

The truth of the matter is that in the United States some States have strong housing laws, and in hundreds of communities the races live together, and it is working out very well. The fears are unfounded, but since so many have nothing to judge these fears by, they hold them, nevertheless.

This is one of the big things to gain here -- to look at the problem squarely, to clear away the anxieties, the prejudices, and the fears that are unfounded, and just look at the problem for what it is. I believe that once we have done that, America will make the choice that I am sure all decent American can be expected to make, and that is that we intend to live together.

Mr. MUSKIE. I thank the Senator and compliment him again.

Mr. MONDALE. I thank the Senator from Maine.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.