Remarks by The President to The NAACP...

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO THE NAACP CENTENNIAL CONVENTION,NAACP介绍：,NAACP：National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
全国有色人种协进会(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)是一个由美国白人和黑人组成的旨在促进黑人民权的全国性组织。总部设在纽约 。,THE PRESIDENT:   Thank you.  What an extraordinary night, capping off an extraordinary week, capping off an extraordinary 100 years at the NAACP.  (Applause.),So Chairman Bond, Brother Justice, I am so grateful to all of you for being here.  It's just good to be among friends.  (Applause.),It is an extraordinary honor to be here, in the city where the NAACP was formed, to mark its centennial.  What we celebrate tonight is not simply the journey the NAACP has traveled, but the journey that we, as Americans, have traveled over the past 100 years.  (Applause.),It's a journey that takes us back to a time before most of us were born, long before the Voting Rights Act, and the Civil Rights Act, Brown v. Board of Education; back to an America just a generation past slavery.  It was a time when Jim Crow was a way of life; when lynchings were all too common; when race riots were shaking cities across a segregated land.,It was in this America where an Atlanta scholar named W.E.B. Du Bois -- (applause) -- a man of towering intellect and a fierce passion for justice, sparked what became known as the Niagara movement; where reformers united, not by color, but by cause; where an association was born that would, as its charter says, promote equality and eradicate prejudice among citizens of the United States.,From the beginning, these founders understood how change would come -- just as King and all the civil rights giants did later.  They understood that unjust laws needed to be overturned; that legislation needed to be passed; and that Presidents needed to be pressured into action.  They knew that the stain of slavery and the sin of segregation had to be lifted in the courtroom, and in the legislature, and in the hearts and the minds of Americans.,They also knew that here, in America, change would have to come from the people.  It would come from people protesting lynchings, rallying against violence, all those women who decided to walk instead of taking the bus, even though they were tired after a long day of doing somebody else's laundry, looking after somebody else's children.  (Applause.)  It would come from men and women of every age and faith, and every race and region -- taking Greyhounds on Freedom Rides; sitting down at Greensboro lunch counters; registering voters in rural Mississippi, knowing they would be harassed, knowing they would be beaten, knowing that some of them might never return.,Because of what they did, we are a more perfect union.  Because Jim Crow laws were overturned, black CEOs today run Fortune 500 companies.  (Applause.)  Because civil rights laws were passed, black mayors, black governors, and members of Congress served in places where they might once have been able [sic] not just to vote but even take a sip of water.  And because ordinary people did such extraordinary things, because they made the civil rights movement their own, even though there may not be a plaque or their names might not be in the history books -- because of their efforts I made a little trip to Springfield, Illinois, a couple years ago -- (applause) -- where Lincoln once lived, and race riots once raged -- and began the journey that has led me to be here tonight as the 44th President of the United States of America.  (Applause.),Because of them I stand here tonight, on the shoulders of giants.  And I'm here to say thank you to those pioneers and thank you to the NAACP.  (Applause.),And yet, even as we celebrate the remarkable achievements of the past 100 years; even as we inherit extraordinary progress that cannot be denied; even as we marvel at the courage and determination of so many plain folk -- we know that too many barriers still remain.,We know that even as our economic crisis batters Americans of all races, African Americans are out of work more than just about anybody else -- a gap that's widening here in New York City, as a detailed report this week by Comptroller Bill Thompson laid out.  (Applause.),We know that even as spiraling health care costs crush families of all races, African Americans are more likely to suffer from a host of diseases but less likely to own health insurance than just about anybody else.,We know that even as we imprison more people of all races than any nation in the world, an African American child is roughly five times as likely as a white child to see the inside of a prison.,We know that even as the scourge of HIV/AIDS devastates nations abroad, particularly in Africa, it is devastating the African American community here at home with disproportionate force.  We know these things.  (Applause.)#p#分页标题#e#,These are some of the barriers of our time.  They're very different from the barriers faced by earlier generations.  They're very different from the ones faced when fire hoses and dogs were being turned on young marchers; when Charles Hamilton Houston and a group of young Howard lawyers were dismantling segregation case by case across the land.,But what's required today -- what's required to overcome today's barriers is the same as what was needed then.  The same commitment.  The same sense of urgency.  The same sense of sacrifice.  The same sense of community.  The same willingness to do our part for ourselves and one another that has always defined America at its best and the African American experience at its best.  (Applause.),And so the question is, where do we direct our efforts?  What steps do we take to overcome these barriers?  How do we move forward in the next 100 years?,The first thing we need to do is make real the words of the NAACP charter and eradicate prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination among citizens of the United States.  (Applause.)  I understand there may be a temptation among some to think that discrimination is no longer a problem in 2009.  And I believe that overall, there probably has never been less discrimination in America than there is today.  I think we can say that.,But make no mistake:  The pain of discrimination is still felt in America.  (Applause.)  By African American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and a different gender.  (Laughter.)  By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country.  (Applause.)  By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion simply because they kneel down to pray to their God.  (Applause.)  By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights.  (Applause.),On the 45th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, discrimination cannot stand -- not on account of color or gender; how you worship or who you love.  Prejudice has no place in the United States of America.  That's what the NAACP stands for.  That's what the NAACP will continue to fight for as long as it takes.  (Applause.),But we also know that prejudice and discrimination -- at least the most blatant types of prejudice and discrimination -- are not even the steepest barriers to opportunity today.  The most difficult barriers include structural inequalities that our nation's legacy of discrimination has left behind; inequalities still plaguing too many communities and too often the object of national neglect.,These are barriers we are beginning to tear down one by one -- by rewarding work with an expanded tax credit; by making housing more affordable; by giving ex-offenders a second chance.  (Applause.)  These are barriers we're targeting through our White House Office on Urban Affairs, through programs like Promise Neighborhoods that builds on Geoffrey Canada's success with the Harlem Children's Zone -- (applause) -- that foster a comprehensive approach to ending poverty by putting all children on a pathway to college, and giving them the schooling and after-school support that they need to get there.  (Applause.),I think all of us understand that our task of reducing these structural inequalities has been made more difficult by the state and structure of our broader economy; an economy that for the last decade has been fueled by a cycle of boom and bust; an economy where the rich got really, really rich, but ordinary folks didn't see their incomes or their wages go up; an economy built on credit cards, shady mortgage loans; an economy built not on a rock, but on sand.,That's why my administration is working so hard not only to create and save jobs in the short-term, not only to extend unemployment insurance and help for people who have lost their health care in this crisis, not just to stem the immediate economic wreckage, but to lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity that will put opportunity within the reach of not just African Americans, but all Americans.  All Americans.  (Applause.)  Of every race.  Of every creed.  From every region of the country.  (Applause.)  We want everybody to participate in the American Dream.  That's what the NAACP is all about.  (Applause.),Now, one pillar of this new foundation is health insurance for everybody.  (Applause.)  Health insurance reform that cuts costs and makes quality health coverage affordable for all, and it closes health care disparities in the process.  Another pillar is energy reform that makes clean energy profitable, freeing America from the grip of foreign oil; putting young people to work upgrading low-income homes, weatherizing, and creating jobs that can't be outsourced.  Another pillar is financial reform with consumer protections to crackdown on mortgage fraud and stop predatory lenders from targeting black and Latino communities all across the country.  (Applause.)#p#分页标题#e#,All these things will make America stronger and more competitive.  They will drive innovation, they will create jobs, they will provide families with more security.  And yet, even if we do all that, the African American community will still fall behind in the United States and the United States will fall behind in the world unless we do a far better job than we have been doing of educating our sons and daughters.  (Applause.),I hope you don't mind -- I want to go into a little detail here about education.  (Applause.)  In the 21st century -- when so many jobs will require a bachelor's degree or more, when countries that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow -- a world-class education is a prerequisite for success.,There's no two ways about it.  There's no way to avoid it.  You know what I'm talking about.  There's a reason the story of the civil rights movement was written in our schools.  There's a reason Thurgood Marshall took up the cause of Linda Brown.  There's a reason why the Little Rock Nine defied a governor and a mob.  It's because there is no stronger weapon against inequality and no better path to opportunity than an education that can unlock a child's God-given potential.  (Applause.),And yet, more than half a century after Brown v. Board, the dream of a world-class education is still being deferred all across the country.  African American students are lagging behind white classmates in reading and math -- an achievement gap that is growing in states that once led the way in the civil rights movement.  Over half of all African American students are dropping out of school in some places.  There are overcrowded classrooms, and crumbling schools, and corridors of shame in America filled with poor children -- not just black children, brown and white children as well.,The state of our schools is not an African American problem; it is an American problem.  (Applause.)  Because if black and brown children cannot compete, then America cannot compete.  (Applause.)  And let me say this, if Al Sharpton, Mike Bloomberg, and Newt Gingrich can agree that we need to solve the education problem, then that's something all of America can agree we can solve.  (Applause.)  Those guys came into my office.  (Laughter.) Just sitting in the Oval Office -- I kept on doing a double-take.  (Laughter and applause.)  So that's a sign of progress and it is a sign of the urgency of the education problem.  (Applause.)  All of us can agree that we need to offer every child in this country -- every child --,AUDIENCE:  Amen!