has always been regarded by Ethiopians as a shining example of free expression of man who has governed his own destiny along the avenues he freely chooses. Ethiopia, for one, is certain that in this great country of the United States she has real and lasting friendship. Such a relationship exists not as a matter of accident. It is rather the result of many similar views and principles which both Ethiopia and the U.S.A. share and uphold towards the maintenance of enduring peace for the world. For without peace, whether on the continental scope or on a regional level, no nation can progress. The great concern which we at times manifest over the events developing around the eastern part of Africa might make us Ethiopians look more vigilant and sensitive than our friends wish us to be. Yet some of the sad reminiscences of our own history, the peculiar position which we occupy in world geography, a delicate situation which is found on the periphery of an area which is always fraught with turbulence, leaves us together with the other fellow Africans to face similar situations with no alternative but to be extra cautious to safeguard our national integrity. At the same time, however, we shall not, as always, falter to continue strengthening our friendship with all our neighbors and friendly countries on the basis of mutual respect. We always pray to the Almighty that peace and understanding reign among all nations on earth. We should also take this opportune moment, Mr. President, to express our deep gratitude for the numerous forms of assistance which Ethiopia has benefited from your Government, be it in the form of technical know-how or in human resource in all walks of our country's endeavor for national develop ment. It is, therefore, with this feeling of our appreciation that we ask the distinguished guests to toast the health of the President and his family and to the lasting amity between our two countries. 53 Message to the Congress Transmitting First Annual Report of the To the Congress of the United States: During its first year, the Endowment sponsored a great variety of projects to assist the arts in assuming their deserved place in American life. It created new opportunities for novelists, poets, painters, sculptors, composers, and students in the arts. It assisted fifty States in developing cultural resources, programs and facilities. Thirty-three State agencies for the arts have been established. New methods of bringing the arts to rural communities have been explored. Plans have also been made for programs which will permit -greater assistance to a wide variety of artistic endeavor; -increased artistic exchanges between February 15, 1967 Latin America and the United States, particularly in the field of creative writing; -nationwide tours of the American Ballet Theatre and other artistic groups which will foster greater appreciation of the arts; -the development of educational programs to heighten understanding of the arts among disadvantaged children. Much of the early success of the Endowment can be traced to bipartisan support for its authorizing legislation, and to the wisdom of the Congress in requiring State and private participation in its programs. We cannot expect massive Federal support to create great art, any more than massive defense programs can be expected to create individual courage. On signing the Arts and Humanities Bill in 1965, I reminded its supporters that "to produce true and lasting results, our States and municipal ities, our schools and great private foundations must join forces with us. It is in the neighborhoods of each community that a nation's art is born. In countless American towns there live thousands of obscure and unknown talents. What this bill does is to bring active support to this great national asset, to make fresher the winds of art in this great land of ours." What the Arts Endowment has sought to do, in its first year, is to improve the climate in which creative talent works, and to extend and inform its audience. This report is evidence that it has begun to achieve that goal. Those who believe that the quality and appreciation of art is one test of a nation's maturity and greatness will take heart from this report. It is with pleasure that I commend it to your attention. LYNDON B. JOHNSON The White House February 15, 1967 NOTE: The report is entitled "National Endowment for the Arts and National Council on the Arts, Annual Report for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1966" (103 pages, processed). The National Endowment for the Arts was established by section 5 of the act of September 29, 1965 (Public Law 89-209; 79 Stat. 845). The National Council on the Arts, established in 1964, was transferred to the National Endowment for the Arts by section 6 of the act. The President's remarks upon signing the act are printed in the 1965 volume, this series, Book II, Item 534. 54 Message to the Congress Transmitting First Annual Report of the National Endowment for the Humanities. February 15, 1967 To the Congress of the United States: I am pleased to transmit the First Annual Report of the National Endowment for the Humanities. This report, together with the annual report of the National Endowment for the Arts, are truly significant documents. They record a pioneering Federal effort to enrich the cultural and human quality of American life. The National Endowment for the Humanities was established to support exploration into the nature of man and his culture and to deepen understanding of the goals of human activity. The first year's activities have been devoted to developing plans to strengthen scholarship and teaching in the humanities and to foster greater public appreciation and understanding of the humanities. These plans provide the basis for programs which will -increase the number of outstanding scholars in the humanities through annual fellowship awards to some 350 individuals-both promising and established scholars -heighten public understanding of the humanities through improvements in education in the school, in the home, and in the community —support research in specific fields to expand the range of our knowledge -enable American scholars to make a greater contribution to the exchange of knowledge essential to international understanding. More than 100 outstanding educators and scholars have advised the Endowment in the development of these programs. The views of these and other great humanists will be sought as plans for subsequent years are developed. I am satisfied that the National Endowment for the Humanities has established a firm foundation for extending the boundaries of our understanding. It is with great satisfaction that I now submit to you this record of its achievement. The White House February 15, 1967 LYNDON B. JOHNSON NOTE: The report is entitled "National Endowment for the Humanities, First Annual Report, Fiscal Year 1966" (Government Printing Office, 24 pp.). The report of the National Endowment for the Arts was transmitted the same day (see Item 53). The National Endowment for the Humanities was established by section 7 of the act of September 29, 1965 (Public Law 89-209; 79 Stat. 845). 55 Special Message to the Congress on Equal Justice. February 15, 1967 To the Congress of the United States: Almost two centuries ago, the American people declared these truths to be selfevident: "That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Seventy-five years later, a savage war tested the foundations of their democratic faith. The issue of the struggle was, as Lincoln said, whether "we shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of earth." Democracy triumphed in the field in 1865. But for the Negro American, emancipation from slavery was but the first engagement in a long campaign. He had still to endure the assaults of discrimination that denied him a decent home, refused his children a good education, closed the doors of economic progress against him, turned him away at the voting booth, the jury box, at places of public accommodation, seated him apart on buses and trains, and sometimes even threatened him with violence if he did not assent to these humiliations. In 1948, President Truman ordered the defense establishment to accord equal treatment to servicemen of every race. That same year, the Supreme Court declared that state courts could not enforce racial covenants in the sale of houses. The Court later struck down racial discrimination in public transportation. In 1954, segregated education was found to be inherently unequal and in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1957, the first civil rights act in eightytwo years passed the Congress. Three later Acts were adopted within the next decade-in 1960, 1964, and 1965. Congress prohibited interference with the right to vote to use any hotel, restaurant, or theater-to secure a job on the basis of merit. It barred the use of Federal funds to any agency that practiced racial discrimination. Within these twenty years, the institutions of democratic government have begun to make the ancient, self-evident truths a reality for all Americans. Though much of our task still lies before us, it is important to measure the progress we have made in the past few years. THE STRUGGLE AGAINST DISCRIMINATION Voting Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the number of Negroes registered in the five states where voter discrimination was most severe has increased by 64 percent from 715,099 to 1,174,569. The vast majority of the new voters-about 334,000-were registered by local officials, in voluntary compliance with the Act. The remainder-some 125,000—were registered by Federal examiners in 47 counties of the five states. Federal observers were present in many counties during the 1966 primary and general elections to insure that the newly registered voters were permitted to vote without interference. In 1960, a Negro citizen complained that for 10 years he had tried without success to register to vote. Not a single Negro had been registered in his county for 60 years. In 1966, he ran for a seat on the local school board— and won. Today, twenty Negroes serve in Southern legislatures. Several important local offices, such as school boards and county commissions, now have Negro membership. The electorate in these states has begun to change. The right to vote-the fundamental democratic right-is now exercised by men and women whose color served in years past to bar them from the polls. After centuries of silence, their voice is being heard. It will never again be stilled. Schools In the 1963-1964 school year, ten years after the landmark Brown decision, one percent of the Negro students in the II Southern states were in schools also attended by white students. Then came the 1964 Civil Rights Act and its prohibition against the use of Federal funds to support racial bias. In September 1966, 12.5 percent of the Negro students in those same states were enrolled in desegregated schools. We expect 1 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., was one of the cases involved in the Supreme Court decision of May 17, 1954, declaring racial segregation in the public schools unconstitutional. The text of the decision is printed in United States Supreme Court Reports, 1954 (349 U.S. 294, 99 L. Ed. 1083). this figure to increase significantly next fall. We will proceed with the task of securing the rights of all our children. Hospitals This year, Negroes are being admitted to hospitals which barred them in the past. By January, 7,130 hospitals-more than 95 percent of the hospitals in the nation-had agreed to provide services without discrimination. More than 1,500 of those hospitals have had to change past policies to make that commitment. Getting rid of discriminatory practices has benefitted hospital systems, as well as the people they serve. Last year, for example, half the beds in an all-white hospital were unoccupied. Yet Negroes in the community were sent to a completely segregated and overcrowded hospital. The half-empty hospital changed its policies to admit Negroes, and it now operates at full capacity. The formerly Negro hospital will be converted into a nursing home serving both races. The effect of the change was to provide better medical care for the entire community. Public Accommodations When the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, prohibiting racial discrimination in places of public accommodation, fears were expressed that this sharp change in established customs would bring about serious economic loss and perhaps even violence. Yet from the start there has been widespread voluntary compliance with the law. Thousands of restaurants, motels and hotels have been opened to Americans of all races and colors. What was thought to be laden with danger proved generally acceptable to both races. Because all businesses of a similar type are covered, each businessman is free, for the first time, to operate on a non-discriminatory basis without fear of suffering a competitive disadvantage. Now Negro families travelling through most parts of their country do not need to suffer the inconvenience of searching for a place to rest or eat where they will be accepted or the humiliating indignity of being turned away. PROGRAMS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE The struggle against today's discrimination is only part of the nation's commitment to equal justice for all Americans. The bigotry of the past has its effects in broken families, men without skills, children without learning, poor housing, and neighborhoods dominated by the fear of crime. Because these effects are encrusted by generations of inferior opportunities and shattered hopes, they will not yield to laws. against discrimination alone. Indeed there is no swift medicine, no matter how potent or massively applied, that can heal them at once. But we know some of the things we must do if the healing process is to beginand we are doing them. Education Head Start has given deprived children a chance to learn in later years—instead of being merely exposed to school. Through this and other preschool programs, two million children have been offered better education and health care. More than seven million children in seventy percent of all school districts in the United States have participated in programs under Title I of the 1965 Education Act. These programs have a single aim: to improve the education of disadvantaged children. The better libraries, larger professional staffs, advanced instructional equipment and other services they provide are investments in the future of children who need them most. In my Message on America's Children and Youth, I asked the Congress to provide an additional $135 million to strengthen Head Start. With these funds, we will launch a Head Start Follow-Through Program in the early grades of elementary school to maintain the momentum the child has gained and we will extend the Head Start Program downward to cover more three-year-olds. Extraordinary help at the start of life is necessary for all disadvantaged children. It is particularly necessary for the Negro child reared in poverty and encumbered by generations of deprivation. Jobs and Training Thousands of job opportunities for the young have been created by the Neighborhood Youth Corps and the Job Corps. The first, active in both urban and rural areas, has enabled many young people to earn enough to remain in school, and provided employment and remedial education for dropouts. The Job Corps-also meant to help those between 16 and 21-has offered other thousands both a change of environment and the opportunity to acquire education and job training. The Manpower Development and Training Act gives men without jobs or skills the chance to acquire both, by combining government planning and resources with private industry. The Work Experience Program offers welfare recipients a means of obtaining the experience they need for gainful employment. Today's strong economy, which last year put almost three million more Americans on the payrolls, is also of tremendous benefit to needy persons in search of dependable em |