00:00:00 Thank you very much Mrs. Burns and I say that if my wife were here, which unfortunately

00:00:12 she isn't, she would be a lot happier to know that I was serving as dessert rather than

00:00:18 eating the dessert.

00:00:21 This of course is the problem which I sympathize with.

00:00:25 I did have the privilege before the dessert and during the meal of sitting next to Ann

00:00:31 and Percy Julian and renewing acquaintances, it's always a great pleasure to be with them

00:00:38 and as you well understand having heard Dr. Julian this morning, not only is he inspiring

00:00:45 but he's also very flattering at all times.

00:00:49 Most invariably Dr. Julian, I believe that as you address a group of this type, you recite

00:00:57 poetry but you recite poetry in a foreign tongue and the assumption is of course that

00:01:03 everybody in your audience understands you perfectly and this is the modern day problem

00:01:09 communication and Dr. Julian has solved it for himself and he believes that the rest

00:01:14 of us mere mortals have as well, which reminds me of a story, it actually happened this way.

00:01:23 Some years ago I was associated with our U.S. delegation, the United Nations, and this was

00:01:30 in the period when the Palestine question, the so-called Palestine question, was on the

00:01:35 agenda of the UN for the first time and as you know in the UN, the General Assembly,

00:01:40 the delegations are seated in alphabetical order, which is part of this story, and there

00:01:45 was a delegate from Saudi Arabia who was viciously attacking the new state of Israel, calling

00:01:52 for these interlopers to be driven into the sea, so on and so forth, at which point the

00:01:57 delegate from Honduras turns around the seat to the delegate from Israel right behind him

00:02:02 and he says,

00:02:05 which for those of you who do not understand, this tongue means in Yiddish, he should grow

00:02:14 like an onion with his head in the ground, at which point the delegate from Israel, with

00:02:21 a look of bewilderment on his face, turns to his partner from Great Britain and he says,

00:02:27 pardon me old man, could you tell me what he said?

00:02:36 Needless to say, he got his answer.

00:02:42 There's also something else which I gathered from Dr. Julian's remarks which I think are

00:02:47 pertinent this afternoon.

00:02:50 One of the things that he said, as I noted it, was that as Presidents Eisenhower and

00:02:57 then Kennedy addressed themselves to Little Rock and then Oxford, they said, whether you

00:03:03 like it or not, this is the law, and he suggested that in that clause, whether you like it or

00:03:10 not, there was somewhat of an apology.

00:03:12 Well, I would submit that this is progress, that this is progress because, as I noted

00:03:20 quickly, it wasn't too many years ago when you would have people in authority in national

00:03:26 life who would say, this is the law, but we don't have to obey it.

00:03:30 Now, I'm not talking only about Southern Governors.

00:03:33 I may have another moment of your time before introducing our panel.

00:03:37 I'm reminded of another personal experience.

00:03:40 When I, as certain of the men, most of the men in this office, found ourselves in this

00:03:45 room, I should say, found ourselves overseas during the war, I recall being in England

00:03:50 in early 1944 and in a battalion of American soldiers, all white, of course, and we'd drawn

00:03:58 up on a great plane on the first weekend of leave which we're having in England.

00:04:05 And there our colonel, commanding officer, a gentleman I didn't note for his liberalism

00:04:12 previously, got up with a paper in front of him and he said, I have here a directive from

00:04:19 the commander-in-chief which I shall now read to you.

00:04:23 And there was a most beautiful exposition for about 10 minutes of what relations should

00:04:28 be amongst American soldiers of different backgrounds, different colors, and so forth.

00:04:33 And he suggested that we were on foreign soil and we were fighting for democracy and

00:04:37 we had to set an example, so on and so forth.

00:04:40 And all this is truly inspiring.

00:04:43 But when he finished, what he said was, now, fellas, I don't believe this any more than

00:04:48 you do, but I had to read it.

00:04:51 Well, we progressed.

00:04:54 We progressed to the point, I think, where more and more of us are saying, not only is

00:04:59 this the law, but we like it.

00:05:02 And perhaps that should be the theme and is the theme of the people who are assembled

00:05:07 here today.

00:05:10 But as is so often the case, we've heard these mumblings this morning that, oh, all this

00:05:20 is fine and very impressive and very imposing, but after all, the wrong people are here.

00:05:27 Because we believe in these things we've been saying to each other, but where are these

00:05:31 hundreds of thousands who are not here, who should be here to hear these things?

00:05:36 And I would submit to you that if this is the law and this is the way we like things,

00:05:43 then we have a job to do.

00:05:46 We have a job to do of carrying the message forward from this place to our environs.

00:05:54 So that perhaps McCormick Place ultimately will be the situs for this great gathering

00:06:01 for the North Shore.

00:06:04 Now what has happened here today is that some hundreds, and I think we have close to 500

00:06:09 people in attendance today, have, after hearing the inspiring remarks of Dr. Julian, broken

00:06:15 up into smaller groups.

00:06:17 And I know that most of you participated in these discussions.

00:06:20 And there's always the problem of communication, of bringing together all the varied and useful

00:06:26 thoughts expressed in these various rooms here, there, and the other place.

00:06:30 I had the opportunity, because I was not assigned to any of these workshops this morning, of

00:06:35 moving from room to room.

00:06:37 And I heard interesting and important things wherever I lighted for just a few minutes.

00:06:43 What we have done today is assembled a panel of very skillful people who have met during

00:06:51 the lunch hour with the recorders of the various sessions.

00:06:56 And what they shall do for us here this afternoon is to synthesize for us, in just a very few

00:07:03 minutes, unfortunately, some 45 minutes aloud amongst them, synthesize the various thoughts

00:07:09 and the various notions which have been expressed all about us here this morning.

00:07:15 And as first, as first to report to you on the panels on education, it will be my, and

00:07:23 is my great pleasure, to introduce to you the lady on my left, an old and dear friend

00:07:29 of many of us in this room, Dr. Annabelle Prescott.

00:07:32 Now Dr. Prescott, as well as the other participants in this panel here today, has a biographical

00:07:39 sketch submitted which attempts to summarize very briefly her many accomplishments.

00:07:47 And unfortunately, due to the press of time, it becomes my responsibility then to extract

00:07:53 from this lengthy list of accomplishments a few facts which may be pertinent for you

00:07:57 here today.

00:07:58 And what I have chosen, above all others, is to suggest that in 1955, Dr. Prescott received

00:08:05 an award as useful citizen, I quote, useful citizen, from her own alma mater, the University

00:08:11 of Chicago.

00:08:13 In 1958, she received the B'nai B'rith Women's Award for Outstanding Contribution to Human

00:08:19 Relations.

00:08:20 Dr. Prescott has been a high school principal.

00:08:24 She has recently retired as Director of Human Relations of the Chicago Board of Education.

00:08:30 But perhaps most importantly, and I think this will please her, above everything else,

00:08:35 I would introduce her to you as teacher, Dr. Annabelle Prescott.

00:08:40 Thank you, Mr. Rosen.

00:08:48 I come to this mic with a very real feeling of inadequacy.

00:08:57 Like Mr. Rosen, I have had the unusually rich experience of being able to rotate this

00:09:04 morning and spend some fractional part of the hour and a half of workshop time with

00:09:10 each of four groups wrestling sincerely and earnestly and perceptively with some of the

00:09:20 very complex problems of education for better human relations.

00:09:25 And then after that, I've had the privilege of sitting down during the lunch break with

00:09:30 five recorders from these groups, a group of young women unusually endowed with a gift

00:09:37 of combining enthusiasm with selectivity, and of hearing them review the findings that

00:09:44 went on each in their several respective groups.

00:09:49 And now I find myself face up against the responsibility of my own personal assignment,

00:09:55 which was to hear, to digest, to analyze, to condense, to combine, to summarize, and

00:10:05 to report back to you in 15 minutes or less all of the magnificent thinking and discussion

00:10:13 that went on in the five times an hour and a half, the aggregate of the concurrent workshop

00:10:23 groups.

00:10:24 And, incidentally, of course, at the same time, to master the digestion of my own lunch

00:10:28 and gulp a cup of coffee concurrently also.

00:10:35 As one might expect in five workshops, all of them dealing with the question and the

00:10:41 problems of education and human relations, there was frequently an overlapping into

00:10:48 topics assigned by the program as areas of major concern with other workshop groups.

00:10:58 I think this is inevitable, for how can we discuss the topic of liberty, equality, and

00:11:06 particularly fraternity in education, if we ignore or exclude from consideration of

00:11:13 the topic the big question of discrimination and segregation in housing?

00:11:21 Or how talk about land of opportunity and employment and ignore the need for equal preparation

00:11:31 for employment for all young people?

00:11:35 Or how be oblivious to the function of the way in which widespread recognition on the

00:11:43 part of minority group young people functions as an anesthetic to aspiration to achievement

00:11:50 and to incentive sometimes even to take advantage of those educational opportunities that are

00:11:55 available.

00:11:58 So that with regard to in view of this overlapping quality of our discussions, I think it is

00:12:06 best not to attempt to report them as individual workshop findings.

00:12:12 And in my whistle stop listening in, I became aware of certain things.

00:12:19 I became aware, I think I sensed, on the part of all workshop groups, a recognition of the

00:12:27 fact that these are qualities and these are problems that concern us all.

00:12:35 I think I saw a clear awareness of the fact that they are not subjects that can be divorced

00:12:43 one from the other.

00:12:45 That prejudice and discrimination have a circular effect, that we can't say that they're going

00:12:51 to be cured by education and education alone, or by legislation and legislation alone, or

00:12:59 even by personal attitude and action or larger organized action programs.

00:13:05 I think I saw a clear awareness that it takes a combination of all of these things, an awareness

00:13:11 of the circular effect of cause and effect and effect again, and of the spiral effect,

00:13:19 the increasingly widening spiral nature of the effects of what is being done on so many

00:13:26 fronts in the human relations effort in America today.

00:13:32 So that in reporting the findings of these workshops, I shan't attempt to separate them

00:13:37 into what happened or what was the thinking of workshop A, B, C, or D, but I think it's

00:13:42 better to try to convey to you the general climate of those workshops, those points of

00:13:47 thinking that seem to be common to all of them, and some of the highlights.

00:13:54 And it's my very sincere hope that those of you who have participated so vigorously and

00:13:58 sincerely and thoughtfully in the workshops, if you fail to hear, stated by me, the exact

00:14:07 magnificent idea which you contributed, or at least not that idea in your pet phraseology,

00:14:14 I do hope that you will recognize it in the compendium, the overall statement of thinking

00:14:21 presented, and that you will be assured that your idea does appear in fuller form in the

00:14:27 written record of your workshop recorder, and that certainly it is a part of the poignant

00:14:33 new thinking of the fellow members of your workshop group.

00:14:40 I think there was pretty general agreement in all of the workshops that there must be

00:14:46 more personal commitment to the credo, whether we look on it as old or new.

00:14:54 I think I sensed in the discussions and the contributions made by individual members a

00:15:01 sense of more earnest commitment as parents to the new creed, to doing their share, to

00:15:07 seeing to it that it moved in quickly out of the realm of the theoretical and the philosophical

00:15:14 into the realm of practical reality.

00:15:18 There was expressed in at least three of the groups, and probably in group four and five,

00:15:25 but I happen not to be there at the time to hear it, a very real concern over the confusion

00:15:31 in the minds of their children.

00:15:33 And this confusion seemed to be of two qualities.

00:15:36 Number one, a confusion closely related to the matter of credo.

00:15:42 The principles that they have heard enunciated in school, in church, possibly at home, and

00:15:50 yet see so much, so highly violated in practices within the home and within the community.

00:15:59 And a second confusion felt particularly by those children who come from homes of bigoted

00:16:07 parents who have heard only one side of the question with regard to minority group persons,

00:16:14 with regard to, quote, justified discrimination and prejudices, and who, when they enter the

00:16:20 school room, hearing the other side expressed, substantiated, validated, are terribly confused

00:16:27 as to what is the true situation.

00:16:30 And here, too, the answer seemed to be that of education, appropriate education.

00:16:38 The problems of education in all of the workshops seemed to fall, shall I say, on two sides

00:16:45 of the track.

00:16:46 There were the problems expressed in terms of children in attendance at suburban schools,

00:16:53 and there were problems expressed in terms of young people in underprivileged schools

00:16:59 in the so-called difficult and problem areas.

00:17:03 With regard to the latter, there was considerable discussion on some of the major problems of

00:17:09 desegregating schools in segregated areas, of the effect and the need for open occupancy,

00:17:17 if this is to be the case.

00:17:19 There was considerable concern expressed about the difficulty in obtaining or retaining in

00:17:25 such areas qualified teachers, superior teachers, to meet the superior needs of the children

00:17:33 in these areas.

00:17:35 One of the suggestions that came out of one of the workshops was the suggestion already

00:17:40 in practice, in rather a small way, but certainly giving excellent results, that of bringing

00:17:47 into the community during the summer months, prior to the opening of school, young people

00:17:52 from the more sheltered communities who aspire to go into teaching, and under the protectorate,

00:18:01 so to speak, of one of the social agencies in the disprivileged communities, to give

00:18:08 them a beginning orientation with the children, with the parents, with the institutions serving

00:18:15 the people of that community.

00:18:18 I'd never heard this particular idea proposed before, but it certainly impressed me as one

00:18:23 with a great potential.

00:18:26 One of our universities here in Chicago does this in a much smaller way, of taking its

00:18:31 young people in the teacher training courses out to schools to do, as he puts it, see the

00:18:36 situation as it is.

00:18:38 But I think all of us know only too well that there's a tremendous difference between seeing

00:18:43 something and living with it.

00:18:46 And a summer's introduction to an area, getting to know the parents, getting to work with

00:18:51 young people in a social way, rather than behind a desk, is certainly a form of orientation

00:18:59 that I think has very tremendous value.

00:19:03 On the other side of the coin, there was expressed a tremendous concern about the failure to

00:19:11 realize the full function of education in suburban communities.

00:19:18 The point had been made that one of the functions of education and one of the responsibilities

00:19:22 of education is to give children wide experience and wide exposure.

00:19:28 And in every single one of the workshops that I attended for a short time, somewhere or

00:19:35 other in the discussion, there came up the concern on the part of parents that their

00:19:40 young people in the suburban communities were not getting the broader human experience and

00:19:45 certainly none of the exposure.

00:19:48 There were some suggestions offered with regard to this.

00:19:53 In one workshop, the point was made that we can't, although it wasn't put in just these

00:19:59 words, we can't eat our cake and have it too.

00:20:02 That we can't expect to get what we avowedly agree is an advantage of urban living, the

00:20:11 advantage of contact with people of many racial, religious, and economic groups, and at the

00:20:17 same time, live exclusively within the protected shelter of a suburban community.

00:20:24 The suggestion was made that young people, not just as a means of integrating schools,

00:20:33 shuttling young people out of totally segregated schools into mixed communities, but that all

00:20:39 young people in this day of rapid movement and population shift and all sorts of change

00:20:45 ought to become accustomed to movement and that it would be a very good idea to shuttle

00:20:50 all children to various sections of the city, various sections of the larger metropolitan

00:20:55 community at various grade levels.

00:21:00 The question of young people having contacts was answered in several different mechanical

00:21:10 ways, interchange of classes, interchange of young people in social and semi-social

00:21:18 activities, the formulation, the creation of projects which would bring young people

00:21:25 from different and diverse communities together, not in terms specifically of getting to know

00:21:30 each other, but in terms of a common project, art or science or discussion group or something

00:21:37 of the other, that kind.

00:21:41 However, a great many of the problems regarding young people, which were attributed, and properly

00:21:52 so, to the door of teaching, improper teaching, inadequate teaching, untrained teaching.

00:22:00 And of course, as we might expect, a good deal of attention was given to the subject

00:22:05 of teacher training, both at the pre-service level and at the in-service training level.

00:22:12 And the points were made of the teacher's responsibility both to the individual child

00:22:17 and the teacher's responsibility to the community.

00:22:22 There could not be a conference or workshop, I think, on education that the question would

00:22:26 not come up somewhere in the proceedings, at what age do we begin? And with the wealth

00:22:33 of material done by scientific, social scientific research on the question of at what age do

00:22:41 our children become prejudiced? And with all of the information that we have from the studies

00:22:46 of Traeger and Radke and Mary Ellen Goodman and Kenneth Clark at New York University,

00:22:53 I think there was pretty generally widespread acquaintanceship with the fact that our youngsters

00:22:59 even at the pre-school age of those tested, and these represented many hundreds of children,

00:23:04 showed a 30% degree of prejudice, and that by the time they had reached the second grade,

00:23:14 60 to 70% of them had marked prejudices, racial or religious or economic. And in view of this

00:23:21 I think there was no dispute in any of the workshops as to the level that education against

00:23:28 prejudice attitude should begin. But the workshops went further than that too. They included

00:23:35 the fact that education was quite as important at the adult level, because it is the adults

00:23:40 of the community who formulate the climate, establish the climate of the community. That

00:23:45 school systems can really go no further and no faster than gets the approval and the support

00:23:52 of the adult community in which they are. And that adults within the community either

00:23:57 individually and by organized groups may either by disapproval and objection handicap

00:24:05 a program in human relations or by wholehearted support and approval see that these move forward.

00:24:16 Education for human relations at the adolescent age was thought to be extremely important

00:24:24 because this is the age that we know traditionally as the age of idealism. And as I listened

00:24:29 to the discussions in one of the rooms, the thought occurred to me that with the frequent

00:24:33 reports of teenage vandalism and rioting, if the pent-up energies of the adolescent

00:24:42 could be combined with his spirit of crusading and his idealism in projects created specifically

00:24:50 to help young people move forward in the field of human relations, what a valuable purpose

00:24:56 this might serve. There were many of the questions, important ones, that went unanswered. We have

00:25:06 not found the answer to the question of how the schools are to continue to build for democracy

00:25:14 with the steadily increasing trend in America today towards stratification. We have not

00:25:23 answered the question of how we are going to, my time is short, of how we are going

00:25:30 to salvage the cream, some of the cream of our brain power to the field of social science

00:25:38 which needs them so badly, with the constant draining off of them to the physical sciences.

00:25:44 And at a time when they are going to be needed so much more by the social sciences because

00:25:48 of the rapid advance of physical science. We have not answered many other questions

00:25:54 that I see I haven't time to pose. But certainly the important thing is that there was concern

00:25:59 about it. As one of the members of the group said, we came frustrated and we'll go away

00:26:04 frustrated. But in this frustration is our hope. As long as we are not lethargic, as

00:26:10 long as we are concerned, as long as parents are worried increasingly not only about the

00:26:16 well-being of their own individual child at home, but of other children and of the world

00:26:21 in which their children are going to live, just that rapidly we are going to move towards

00:26:25 a solution of these problems. Thank you.

00:26:35 Unfortunately the world is full of paradox. If we didn't have children coming home from

00:26:41 school at three o'clock, Annabelle, we could spend so much more time with you, listening

00:26:46 to your, what I believe, and I think you'll agree with me, is a brilliant summation of

00:26:51 the matter of education of our children.

00:26:59 Now if I may, incidentally, I have another little story to interject here, but it wouldn't be fair, Annabelle. I said one minute, please, and Annabelle spoke for just one additional minute.

00:27:09 And I'll have to hold that to go on to our next speaker, whose biography is two closely

00:27:18 typewritten pages. And again, I had to make this very, very difficult choice of deciding

00:27:24 for myself what you and he would like for me to extract from this indeed very imposing

00:27:31 biography. And what I have marked is that our next speaker, Mr. Ed Marciniak, has been

00:27:38 a vice president of the Chicago Newspaper Guild, an active newspaper man, editor of

00:27:44 work, and director of the Catholic Council on Working Life. He too has served our government

00:27:52 as a member of the United States delegation to the annual conference of the International

00:27:57 Labor Organization in Geneva. But perhaps as most importantly, he would like to be known

00:28:04 as, Annabelle would like to be known, I thought, as teacher. He would like to be known to you

00:28:11 most as father. Because Ed Marciniak, according to his biography, is married to Virginia and

00:28:18 is father of Catherine, Christina, Francesca, and Claudia Marciniak. It's indeed my pleasure

00:28:27 to introduce to you the director of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, who in the

00:28:34 rather relatively brief period he's been in this position has given a new and dynamic

00:28:40 leadership to intergroup relations progress in the city of Chicago. He has told me he's

00:28:47 very happy to be here today because somehow he thinks that the problems we're talking

00:28:51 about in this area of the North Shore have some relationship to his area of concern,

00:28:58 which is the city. Now my pleasure to introduce to you Ed Marciniak.

00:29:04 The only scriptural quotation that I can think of at the moment, Ann, is from the book

00:29:16 of Genesis, and it's the phrase, increase and multiply, because it seems to me that

00:29:24 the conference that you have so ably put together and sponsored should be held also in the western

00:29:32 suburbs and in the southern suburbs. And I hope that one of the projects from here

00:29:37 on in is to have such conferences in the western and southern suburbs. I also would like to

00:29:43 agree with Dr. Prescott that the recurring theme throughout the five workshops that I

00:29:50 have attended did overlap with the suggestions that were made in other workshops, that we

00:29:56 should not, for example, deprive our children of the experience of growing up not in an

00:30:02 isolated, protected, sheltered community, but in a community that wasn't sheltered from

00:30:09 a world which is predominantly colored. And this was all the way through it. The importance,

00:30:15 for example, of attracting, of actually attracting Negro teachers to our school, the superior

00:30:22 teachers that Dr. Prescott was talking about. So that I'd rather not dwell on those common

00:30:28 emphases that were made in all of the workshops that might overlap with others. I'd like to

00:30:33 direct them specifically to the area of housing. One recurring theme was that we should not

00:30:40 wait for housing integration to confront us. It must be brought up, the question must be

00:30:48 brought up in advance. Not just in the ghettos of the Catholic Interracial Council or the

00:30:55 Anti-Defamation League, but in the synagogues, in the synagogue organizations, the church

00:31:03 organizations, the fraternal and civic groups. It is easy to raise this question in the happy,

00:31:10 agreeable environment of an organization that believes in this, like the Catholic Interracial

00:31:16 Council does, or the Anti-Defamation League. But it's got to be brought up in these other

00:31:20 organizations. I should say at this point that the recorders were very good, and that

00:31:25 like every book, I should say that any resemblance...

00:31:36 The experience of most families in the metropolitan area, the experience of most people in the

00:31:43 metropolitan area is with neighborhoods that are all Negro or all white. And now we have

00:31:49 begun to realize that neighborhoods are not only possible, but desirable, in which

00:31:56 Negroes and whites live together as neighbors. And we're beginning to realize that particularly

00:32:03 in suburban communities, inundation is not only not inevitable, but also extremely unlikely.

00:32:12 Again, accentuating the possibility of housing integration.

00:32:21 In each organization, which people here represent, and as a matter of fact, there are thousands

00:32:28 of these organizations in the suburbs, this issue should be on the agenda of one or more

00:32:35 of these organizations brought by the people here. And it doesn't necessarily have to be

00:32:41 on the issue of, quote, housing integration. It can be done by raising it in the level

00:32:46 of panic peddling, or real estate practices, or fair housing legislation, but in some way

00:32:51 it ought to be put on the agenda of each of the organizations of which are represented here.

00:32:59 There was, in all of these sessions, a realization of the growth of a Negro middle class.

00:33:08 In human, I might say something personal here, in human relations agencies, official human

00:33:14 relations agencies around the country, we get complaints from citizens complaining that

00:33:21 they've been victimized in employment or housing because of their race, religion, or nationality.

00:33:27 And there is a very interesting difference between the complainants in the field of employment

00:33:34 as distinguished from the field of housing. In the field of employment, by and large,

00:33:39 the complaints are filed by citizens who are at the bottom of the economic ladder moving

00:33:44 up, low income people in search of jobs, job security, and income, an economic position

00:33:50 in society. But the complaints in the field of housing are generally filed by people who

00:33:55 are up the economic ladder, people who have established themselves with a job, they have

00:34:01 economic security, they have stability of income, and they're now in search of good housing.

00:34:07 And I think this understanding, this understanding is necessary to appreciate the significance

00:34:14 of the mobility of the Negro middle class population as it searches for housing now

00:34:21 that it has attained a certain amount of economic security. This is very important in terms

00:34:26 of the stereotype that many people have about Negro housing and Negro low income families

00:34:34 because the image that frequently people have of the Negroes who are in search of housing

00:34:42 is exclusively limited to low income Negro families, whereas the opposite is generally

00:34:49 true. The Negro middle class families, the middle income families to be more accurate,

00:34:54 the Negro middle income families are the ones who are actively seeking housing on

00:34:58 the open market. There was a repeated suggestion that individual groups, individual organizations

00:35:09 should start a dialogue with real estate brokers, and that it would be important for groups

00:35:18 that are informed, I underline informed, groups that are informed to meet with realtors,

00:35:25 real estate brokers, civic officials, village officials, and state representatives.

00:35:31 And I emphasize this because I just recently made a trip to Boston where we were discussing

00:35:37 fair housing legislation in Massachusetts. And one of the contributing elements to a

00:35:44 climate of acceptance for fair housing practices legislation was the existence throughout the

00:35:50 entire metropolitan suburban area of Boston of fair housing practices committees in the

00:35:56 suburbs. And these committees had as one of their cardinal principles that the minute

00:36:01 they got organized and informed, they would invite the local real estate men in.

00:36:06 Somebody observed shrewdly while we were talking about that maybe the original reason why the

00:36:12 real estate broker came in was so that he could spy on the activities of these committees.

00:36:18 But let me assure you that in the conversations we had with top real estate brokers, there

00:36:23 were five of them, three of them who were sympathetic to fair housing practices legislation

00:36:29 had been invited originally to these fair housing practices committees in the suburbs.

00:36:36 There was a question raised in our discussion with the recorders, which I'd like to pose

00:36:41 for you in a personal opinion. The question is frequently asked, would you sell your home

00:36:48 to a Negro family? Let me give you my answer. My answer is I'd rather stay and have my next

00:36:56 door neighbor sell his home to a Negro family.

00:36:59 Lastly, lastly, there was unanimous consensus that there should be support for a fair housing

00:37:10 practices legislation. May I recommend in closing that we abandon the phrase open occupancy

00:37:17 legislation and use a phrase like fair housing practices legislation or freedom of residence

00:37:23 legislation. Open occupancy has too many other connotations which I think prejudice our case.

00:37:30 Our objective in fair housing practices legislation is to take race, religion, or nationality

00:37:37 out of the housing market and let the housing market operate by its usual standards of credit,

00:37:42 family size, income, etc. But to take race out of that market and to take religion and

00:37:47 nationality out of that market. And I'd recommend to you that you support fair housing practices

00:37:52 legislation. Thank you.

00:38:01 Thank you Ed very much, not only for a brilliant summary, but you're speaking only 14 minutes

00:38:07 and giving me that minute for my story because I really want to get this one off my chest.

00:38:12 I think it's somehow so pertinent. We've heard the reference today to the importance of educating

00:38:18 our children in the proper environment. The best environment being one in which people of various

00:38:24 races and religions are living together. I might say that the Rosens fortunately live in that sort

00:38:30 of an atmosphere. But I should add hastily that it does possess its perils. I happen to have, Ed

00:38:37 has four daughters when he said increase or multiply. I thought he was going to mention that the fifth

00:38:41 was on the way and if so congratulations Ed. The Rosens have but two children, age six and eight.

00:38:47 Little girl in the first grade and the little boy in the third grade. And one day recently our daughter

00:38:53 came home from the first grade with a friend of hers, a little boy who was colored and she's very fond

00:38:58 of him. And she came up the front steps, she announced to her brother in the presence of her mother

00:39:04 that I'm going to marry Johnny. And the older brother, age eight, immediately said very vehemently,

00:39:12 oh no you're not. And as my wife stood there transfixed wondering what was going to happen next

00:39:18 he said you're not going to make an uncle out of me.

00:39:27 Which brings me to the subject of our last panelist.

00:39:35 Dick Nelson also has a very impressive biography. And now in the interest of time I read

00:39:41 that after serving in many important posts in the Stevenson administration and then going into industry

00:39:49 he presently is now a member of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the chairman of the Illinois

00:39:57 Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and chairman of the Evanston

00:40:02 Community Relations Commission which I believe is represented here today by others as well as

00:40:07 Dick Nelson. You should note too that the state of Illinois for 16 years ever since World War II

00:40:16 was attempting to see the, attempting the passage of a Fair Employment Practices Act.

00:40:22 For 16 years for eight bitter sessions of the state legislature there were people in our community

00:40:30 who were attempting to have Illinois catch up to the parade.

00:40:34 It wasn't until 1961 under the leadership and chairmanship of Dick Nelson who was chairman of the

00:40:42 Illinois Committee for a Fair Employment Practices Act that we were finally able to see this most

00:40:48 important legislation accepted by our state legislature in Springfield.

00:40:54 Sure. I thought too I was going to be summarized with a one word description and for a while I

00:41:03 thought it was uncle, but I'll never be privileged to be that because my wife and I are only children

00:41:13 but be that as it may we've tried to make amends by having several of our own.

00:41:19 I think that it's always kind of fun when discussing an issue like this to find the testimonial

00:41:28 of someone who has been converted to the point of view we share and perhaps some of you read as I did

00:41:35 in the last issue of Reporter Magazine about the chief of police of Atlanta, Georgia who was

00:41:41 addressing a group of police officials in one of the border states, I forget which one, and he

00:41:47 pointed out in his testimonial that he had been an ardent proponent of segregation, that he saw no

00:41:56 reason why there should be any Negroes on his police force in Atlanta, but when he was ultimately

00:42:01 persuaded he found that it worked and it worked very well and he was now proud to state that of his

00:42:07 police force of 750 men there were 50 Negroes, that they had the full rights and responsibilities

00:42:14 of the other members of the force and made the specific point that they were authorized to arrest

00:42:20 either white people or Negroes who might be law offenders. A heckler in the audience who obviously

00:42:27 didn't share the Atlanta chief's view said a variation of the age old question, how would you like

00:42:35 your wife to be arrested by a Negro? He paused for a moment and he said well very frankly I wouldn't

00:42:41 any more than I would like for her to be arrested by a white man, but the thing that ensures I think

00:42:49 that we are ultimately going to solve the problems that concern us today are the instances like the

00:42:56 chief of the police force in Atlanta and who having had the experience that they have are willing to

00:43:03 go out and speak to the world and persuade others that they too should give equality of opportunity

00:43:09 an opportunity to work its inevitable solution. I had only two workshops to visit with today

00:43:20 and I'm going to tend to summarize them each individually rather than do it in the fashion of the two

00:43:28 earlier summarizers. Panel four was entitled the Land of Opportunity and this workshop was dedicated

00:43:35 to the problem of equality of opportunity in education, housing, and employment to the old, the ill,

00:43:42 and to the members of minority groups. It was concluded that the problem of the minority groups was the

00:43:49 most significant in terms of this discussion. Now one of the critical things that faces our country

00:43:55 and has for a number of years is the fact that we do have a somewhat disturbing degree of chronic

00:44:01 unemployment. It is presently running around five and one half to six million persons and I think that

00:44:08 it should give us all pause to reflect when we realize that this is the largest rate of unemployment

00:44:15 in any of the countries that are a part of the Western world at the present time. That all of the

00:44:21 countries in Western Europe, Japan, the South American countries all have a lower degree of

00:44:30 unemployment than we have. Now the unfortunate thing and we all are keenly aware of this I think is that

00:44:36 a disproportionate number of minority group people are members of the chronically unemployed group.

00:44:42 In some areas there are three times as many Negroes unemployed relatively speaking as there are whites

00:44:48 and in the country as a whole this figure runs at least twice as much as for the white persons.

00:44:55 This is made more complex these days by the impact of automation. People who have rather

00:45:03 narrow but high skills that were developed through long periods of training take for example

00:45:09 the men who used to skin the animals for meat packers very frequently. These were semi-illiterate or

00:45:15 illiterate people and many of them were Negroes. Finally a machine has been developed that will do this

00:45:21 very delicate task and men in their 50s and 60s were thrown out of work because they were

00:45:27 functionally illiterate. They were unable to acquire new skills and so if they were able to find any work

00:45:33 at all it was at a very low rate of pay and they and their families suffered, have suffered significant

00:45:41 hardships. Inevitably when you discuss this question of who is unemployed there is the problem of

00:45:51 who is qualified to be employed, discrimination aside, and so there was considerable discussion about the problem

00:45:59 of the dropout student. Why do students drop out of school? And it was pointed out that partly because they weren't

00:46:07 they wanted out of schools. Now their goals and desires may not have been realistic but the simple fact was that

00:46:15 many of them wanted more attention, many perhaps needed a better curriculum, others felt economic pressure

00:46:21 from their families or from their own perhaps shallow standards that they must earn more money.

00:46:27 There was reference again to the question of who is it that's being discriminated against. We find that 10% of the

00:46:41 population of the United States is physically disabled, 10% is mentally disabled, 14-20% are discriminated against to some extent

00:46:51 because perhaps they are Catholics or Jews or some other minority religious group. And obviously the group that seems

00:46:59 to be singled out for the most discrimination are the Negroes and you can supply your own percentage figure there.

00:47:05 One thing that recurred in both groups, I think it's right to say, is that many employers would be willing to do something about

00:47:17 discrimination but they are sensitive about the subject, they don't quite know how to go about it. If there's anything that can be done to

00:47:25 reassure them that you as a customer have no objection to discrimination, that you as a supplier think it would be a good idea,

00:47:33 anything that you can do to communicate to the uncertain that they have your support would help in solving this problem.

00:47:41 Panel number 5, if I can find its title here, dealt with the problem of economic discrimination. Again, there was the emphasis on the

00:48:01 greater number of unemployed among discriminated against groups, the impact of automation. And I think a very fine point was made here that

00:48:11 discrimination not only has an economic toll but it has a very significant emotional toll. It does something to the personality of the person

00:48:19 who is discriminated against which unfortunately occasionally makes it all the more difficult for that person to qualify for employment

00:48:27 even when he is judged objectively. Now, I think many of us are aware of the passage of the FEP law in Illinois at the last session of the General

00:48:37 Assembly. We were the last of the northern industrial states to enact such a law. Unfortunately, it reflects a good amount of compromise. It is not a

00:48:47 strong law. Some of us said that we would rather have three quarters of a loaf than none. But I do think we have a law that we can build on and work with. And it is

00:48:57 not too soon for us to be thinking in terms of how can this law be amended so that it will do a more effective job within our state. Now, I think one of the

00:49:07 things that was not discussed that I should mention to you is the very effective work that is being done by the President's Committee on Equal Employment

00:49:15 Opportunities. This committee has been in being for a number of years now. It started really back in World War II and has been modified and its work has been

00:49:26 increased in each successive administration. And all of you who perhaps are affiliated either directly or perhaps through the work of your husbands with

00:49:38 companies that do work for the government must be aware of the very effective work that is being done by that committee to extend employment opportunities.

00:49:48 There is one problem that I think we should all face up to and realize that opportunities in a sense are opening so rapidly that there is a real shortage of qualified

00:49:59 people in some areas. And I think that this again points back to the problem of education, keeping people in school, and persuading these people that if they only will

00:50:10 qualify themselves, the job opportunity is there. Madam Chairman, I would just like to say in conclusion that as we reflect upon what it is that we could do to

00:50:20 implement some of the things that we have talked about today and which we agree that we subscribe to, as I see all of these lovely ladies, when they go home

00:50:28 tonight and sit down at the dinner table with their husband, I would ask them about what was happening in their work during the day. And you know I attended the most

00:50:37 interesting conference and among the things we discussed were discrimination in employment and what is being done at your office. And he will say why don't you go back to

00:50:47 bridge and bowling. But the opportunity is there. If we'll just each of us work on it within his own sphere of influence, and I have some notion of the influence

00:50:59 you have in the spheres I've just described, we'll accomplish a great deal. Thank you.

00:51:11 Dick will call you a good husband. Now you know why whenever I want to buy a ton of steel I always ask for inland. Now we've had many variations on the old question this

00:51:24 afternoon, would you want your daughter to, but nobody ever came out with it. Would you want your daughter to marry a Negro? And this goes way back. Some of you may remember this

00:51:34 very wonderful story of the late great Walter White, director of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People. And Walter White, as his name might suggest, or Negro,

00:51:46 has a very fair complexion. And he tells the story of being in a taxi cab in Washington, Washington D.C. one day and gets into the invariable question, race relations and so forth. And Walter White is saying

00:51:58 from our point of view, all the right things. And the cab driver is disagreeing with him, getting more and more annoyed. And finally turns to Mr. White and he said, well would you want your daughter to marry a Negro?

00:52:09 And his response was, probably will, probably will. We now come, I don't know what follows the dessert, but perhaps this is the cigars, liqueurs and cigars in the library or what have you, but we're

00:52:29 coming to the conclusion of what I think all of you will agree is a very inspiring and thought provoking day. Now in our workshop panels this morning, we not only had general consideration of these various problems, but from certain of the panels

00:52:51 came recommendations. Recommendations to this group for digesting and then disposal, yay or nay. And I do believe, and I've had an opportunity to see some of these recommendations, your decision will be yay.

00:53:08 Our summarizers very carefully avoided reference to the specific recommendations, perhaps because they appreciated the fact that there are others active in this conference who should have the opportunity to present these notions to you.

00:53:26 We have several people with us who have been active in the planning, the work of this conference prior to our meeting here today. Among them is one of our panelists to follow in the next half hour and we will be done and ready to leave here at 3 o'clock as I understand.

00:53:44 One who has given yeoman service to this conference in many, many capacities, particularly as chairman of these wonderful workshops which we had earlier today. And who will be here with us this afternoon to report on the recommendations of the education panel.

00:54:07 And this is most appropriate that you report here because Mrs. Valentine Glockner is herself a teacher, herself an educator. She is a member of the faculty of Chicago Teachers College North, which incidentally I have not seen, but is a new building and a colleague of mine describes it as Taj Mahal on the north side.

00:54:32 Very, very beautiful buildings and from what I gather in a very short time there has been the creation of a very wonderful faculty, a very outstanding faculty which Mrs. Glockner graces.

00:54:45 It is my pleasure now first to introduce her to read some preambular material and then present the recommendations in the field of education. Mrs. Glockner.

00:55:02 I must not refrain from quoting Bertrand Russell. He states that man is the only animal who seeks to cure the follies which he himself created. I think that's very appropriately stated.

00:55:20 I must also bear your indulgence to hear a particular incident which occurred at an integrated summer camp. There was to be a costume party and the need for disguise. Two children, one colored and one white, wanted to change clothing and in that way lose identity.

00:55:45 Said the colored child, nah, she'd know us apart. I'm sure she would. Oh no, we can change clothes, said the white child. On second thought, said the colored child, maybe she won't notice, said the white child.

00:55:59 Well, I'm afraid it was not such a good idea after all. She's too smart. She'll know us by the difference in the color of our eyes. Yours are black and mine are blue.

00:56:11 So prejudice, you see, is acquired, not conceived. You have before you the recommendations as set forth by a committee, the chairman of which was Mr. James Castleberry, and it reads thusly.

00:56:34 The first part has not been amended. It stands verbatim. Be it known that 26 organizations of the North Shore community of Chicago have established an intercommunity conference on human relations born of the felt need for better relations and understanding among various ethnic, religious, and racial groups.

00:56:58 Be it known further that the intercommunity human relations conference convened on October 29, 1962 at the Villa Moderne in Highland Park, Illinois, for a full day of study and discussion on pertinent problems of education, employment, and housing as factors in intercommunity and interpersonal relations.

00:57:19 Be it also known that as a result of the knowledge and inspiration arising from specific addresses and workshops, we are resolved to take back to our organizations the findings of such study and apply these in ways which will implement and inspire us toward bettering conditions for all members of our community.

00:57:41 Hereforth, we therefore submit the following recommendations as the outgrowth of our conference, and this is the general statement.

00:57:50 Specifics were added at the close of the discussion period in the individual workshops.

00:57:57 On education, that the climate of the total educational environment, meaning of course the school and the external community and the home and the church, all of the factors which make up for the total education, be conducive to the full realization of our democratic ideal by one.

00:58:18 Encouraging institutions of teacher training to assume a larger role in shaping educational effort directed toward greater competence in the understanding of intergroup relations, and that vehicles such as teacher institutes be utilized for this type of development.

00:58:40 And two, that we work toward truly representative boards of education from all walks of life, from all ethnic, racial, religious groups.

00:58:59 That we urge school systems and their boards of education to enlarge their scope of qualified teacher employment, notwithstanding race or religion.

00:59:14 That conformity not be a requisite, nor quota systems be imposed.

00:59:23 And three, that we work toward increased insights of civic and religious groups for greater interaction within the society in which it operates.

00:59:36 That techniques of exchange programs be utilized to bridge the gap of urban and suburban life.

00:59:44 That greater participation be had between the community and boards and their respective boards of education.

00:59:57 That greater emphasis be placed on academic freedom.

01:00:02 That greater concern be placed in the initiation of programs which will foster the return of dropouts to the schoolroom situation.

01:00:15 That apparatus be established to provide stimuli such as scholarships which will involve the whole community in this very significant problem of dropouts.

01:00:32 That an orientation program for teacher training prior to that of actual teacher experience be established.

01:00:42 Thank you Dr. Block. I think the method we shall use in proceeding is to have the next recommendations read by Dr. Gorman and Mrs. Portis before we vote on the whole.

01:01:01 Bringing to us the recommendations from the panels on employment will be Dr. Thomas R. Gorman, a member of the, I'm sorry, this is housing, I'm so sorry.

01:01:13 I was pointed out to me on housing, Dr. Thomas Gorman who is a member of the recommendations committee and comes to us today in this capacity as president of the North Shore Catholic Interracial Council. Dr. Gorman.

01:01:26 These recommendations on housing will be read as they have been modified by the various suggestions from the workshops.

01:01:47 It reads as follows, on housing, to explode myths and misconceptions which negate our faith in the principles of democracy by, one, studying the nature of prejudice and its relation to discrimination.

01:02:05 Two, supporting legislation on local, state, and national levels for fair housing.

01:02:14 Three, studying and supporting ways and means for practical application of personal and community adaptation to change.

01:02:25 Suggested areas of study are, A, study the organization home. B, work for block organizations to maintain an absence of panic in communities.

01:02:46 And three, encouraging contacts between Negro and white communities whenever possible. Thank you.

01:03:04 And now a report from the employment workshops by Mrs. Herbert Portis.

01:03:16 That active democratic processes be employed as a function of a dynamic, continuous culture by, one, urging individuals and organizations to familiarize themselves with existing conditions and understanding the problems involved.

01:03:39 And two, encouraging groups to learn about existing apparatus for dealing with these problems and to seek to extend this apparatus.

01:03:51 This recommendation was further enhanced by the following.

01:03:57 That in the fair employment field, we praise stores and industries who hire minority groups.

01:04:05 That individual petitions be sent to government about basic problems of unemployment.

01:04:13 Three, working toward elimination of inequities where they may exist.

01:04:19 Another recommendation, to encourage congressmen to vote for the passage of freedom of residence law for Illinois.

01:04:33 Thank you.

01:04:35 Ladies, you've heard the recommendations from the various workshops. Will all of those in favor please say aye.

01:04:47 Opposed?

01:04:49 The recommendations are adopted.

01:04:52 In turning back the gavel for just a moment to Mrs. Burns, I want to say to you, offer my compliments and my congratulations.

01:05:02 I'm sure I speak for all of those in attendance when I say that this has been a most exciting occasion whose effects we have not begun to imagine.

01:05:13 I trust that I'll see some of you ladies before and all of you next year.

01:05:24 The day's events have come to an end, but I beg your indulgence for just a few brief concluding remarks.

01:05:32 On behalf of all my co-workers, may I thank you, our participants, for your enthusiastic response.

01:05:39 A post-evaluation of the findings of this conference will be prepared and submitted when we get our second wind.

01:05:48 Will the workshop recorders please leave your notes with Mrs. Glockner so that we may incorporate this material in our post-evaluation report which will be ready in several weeks.

01:06:03 Practitioners in the field of human relations know there is no magic word, no key, no one method to solve our problems.

01:06:14 Though these problems are deep-rooted, they are not unyielding.

01:06:19 The very existence of all the organizations here today, their strengths, their progress, their constituencies, are assurances that these problems can be resolved.

01:06:32 We must not dilute our concern when individuals or groups make haste slowly.

01:06:40 Before we can ignite a torch, we must light a candle.

01:06:44 In these times of national peril, we must open our eyes and our hearts to those around us, clasp hands with our neighbors.

01:06:53 For if we are to survive, we must live for each other.

01:06:58 As we stand united, we must bear our responsibility to a worldwide community.

01:07:04 For no man is unto himself an island.

01:07:08 And as I leave, I would like to leave you with a few very favorite lines of mine.

01:07:15 If we work upon bronze, it may tarnish.

01:07:19 If we work upon marble, time may deface it.

01:07:23 Even if we rear temples, they may crumble into dust.

01:07:28 But when we work upon mere mortal minds, imbuing them with the spirit and love of God and fellow men,

01:07:37 we engrave upon these tablets something that will stand unto eternity.

01:07:43 Thank you and good afternoon.