Thanks to everyone for helping me to celebrate. I'm honored that you wanted to join me.

Gerson Goodman is here. Eighty years ago he walked with me to kindergarten, and we've been best friends ever since. How lucky can a guy be!

Sylvia Woods is here. Second best friend for fifty years. That ain't bad either.

I am deeply honored that Assistant Attorney General of the United States Sharee Freeman is here. She is the current Director of The Community Relations Service. While our paths never crossed professionally, I feel there exists a bond of fellowship among all of us who have been dedicated to the work of CRS.

I am especially warmed by the fact that Roger Wilkins is here. I was privileged to be a guest at the White House when President Johnson presided over the ceremonies in which Thurgood Marshall guided Roger through the oath of office, making him the second Director of CRS, the first to be so as Assistant Attorney General.

Roger was my first boss at CRS, and through that four-year period I enjoyed knowing him as a good teacher, and an inspiring leader. His legacy to CRS was a program direction and an esprit de corps that lasted for many years. Summing up his role as directot, I wrote in the book:

Program emphases had shifted from south to north, from rural to urban, from fire fighting to fire prevention. Recruitment of black staff members was accellerated. Hispanic recruitment was initiated. Most significant, the balance of program goals, that had teetered between mere compliance with the law and wider objectives of social justice, moved perceptibly toward justice.

I am mostly pleased by the presence this evening of so many veteran conciliators and mediators of CRS. It was their work that provided the inspiration and the substance for the book. It was through their eyes that I was able to view the nitty-gritty of racial conflict, and it was through their reports from a thousand communities across America, that I saw the dynamics of racial tension being played out, and witnessed the development of a body of professional practice that could mediate the resolution of racial conflict.

I am delighted that my publisher chose to use as the cover illustration the photo of Lyndon Johnson signing into law the Civil Rights Act of 1965. It was at that moment that CRS was created. To the members of the civil rights community that had worked so hard to win support for the bill, CRS was the least important part. To them, the law's promise lay in the provision outlawing discrimination in public accommodations. Its other critical provisions were those that added enforcement muscle, to put some teeth into the federal effort to speed the desegregation of schools and the ending of discrimination in employment. But in his remarks at the signing ceremony, President Johnson made no mention of what everyone knew to be the meat and potatoes of the bill. Instead He made an appeal to the nation for voluntary compliance with the law. And hediscussed some of the things he had done to help the medecine go down. The only specific provision he discussed was Title Ten, which created CRS. He saw t he new agency as a means to encourage voluntary compliance. He expected it to work with local citizens to negotiate conflict in a peaceful , non-violent way and thereby keep racial conflict out of the streets and out of the court room.

As a senator, Johnson himself had proposed the creation of a community relations service in 1956. It never passed the Senate, but the shape and role that he envisioned for it was a remarkable forecast of what ultimately emerged. In his remarks in introducing the bill, he offered a scenario of the role of the conciliator, calling that person a man who would be worth his weight in gold.

Forty years later, some people reading my book may conclude that CRS compiled a record of achievement, perhaps a little lower than Lyndon Johnson's expectations, but far beyond the expectations of most of those whose efforts had brought it into being. That legacy is explored in the book.

Although Andrew Young , speaking for himself and Dr. King, once told Roger Wilkins, “ You know that Martin and I think of the Community Relations Service as the arm of the civil rights movement inside the government,” few of those who brought CRS into being, and few who worked for it, ever expected it to rise above the role of peace-maker. It was not supposed to make history. But over time the peace makers did turn out to be change makers in some instances. The book weighs the evidence in a few areas. Two propositions are well substantiated. First, CRS clearly helped to start the ball rolling to wipe out Jim Crow in journalism - with respect to both content and employment. Secondly, the revolution in police relations with minority groups , across the board, but especially in terms of changing the standards regarding the use of deadly force. Here, by dint of thousands of case over 25 years, and by sturdy advocacy at the policy level, the CRS influence for change was preeminent.

March is a 40th anniversary month for many significant events in civil rightrs history. Many of these are dealt with in Chapter Three, which is devoted completely to the CRS role in Selma and the subsequent march to Montgomery. Four days ago , on the fifteenh was the anniversary of President Johnson's address to a joint session of the Congress, to seek passage of the Voting Rights Act. Seated in the President's box with Ladybird and Mrs. Collins was LeRoy Collins, Director of CRS. The Collins had earlir been dinner guests of the President and first lady at the White House. This distinction Johnson's way of acknowledging the role of CRS and of Collins in Selma, as chronicled day by day in Chapter three. The events in Selma immediately preceding the joint session were somewhat anti-climactic, but they depict some of the drama, drudgery, and ridiculousness that can occupy a day or a week in the life of CRS.

To set the scene: Bloody Sunday occurred on March 7, 1965. Helpless protesters had been set upon by state police and a mounted sheriff's posse and brutally beaten, and the televised record was headlined around the world under Dr. King. Sent out a call to the nation's clergy and other supporters to join them in a second effort, scheduled for Tuesday. two days later, to cross the Pettus bridge and march to Montgomery. President Johnson, determined that such a national shame would not be repeated, sent LeRoy Collins in a White House jet, to personally head the CRS effort to prevent a repetition of the violence. The CRS negotiation which CRS induced between a reluctant King and a reluctant head of the state police had worked and the day ended with no repeat of the violence.

That evening, three visiting clergymen were attacked by locl ruffians while leaving a restaurant and the Reverend Reeb was murdered.

The corps of clergy men in Selma tripled as preachers and other dignitaries streamed into Selma from al over the nation to protest the killing. The city, which had been on the brink of civic peace, was now boiling over with raging passion. The City Council renewed its pan on parades and marches. The police cordoned off the area surrounding Brown's Chapel Church and the First Baptist Church with a rope. The rope barrier became known as the “Berlin Wall”, the area within was known as” the compound.” The folks within the compound initiated all-night vigils. White, threatening mobs, assembled outside the Berlin Wall, and the police formed a middle ring between the two.

After a couple of days CRS negotiated a formula by which the vigils would end with a march to the court house to memorialize the death of Reverend Reeb. And the parade ban would modified so as to permit such a march.

With that stage setting, I will now read from page 69 of Chapter Three, which is entitled, “Selma, Blow by Blow.”

Home | Remarks | Book Party | Book Reviews | Missouri Press | Buy the Book | Resources