肯尼迪于1963年在白宮發(fā)表關于民權的電視講話

肯尼迪于1963年在白宮發(fā)表關于民權的電視講話 英文版

Good evening, my fellow citizens.

This afternoon, following a series of threats and defiant statements, the presence of Alabama National Guardsmen was required on the University of Alabama to carry out the final and unequivocal order of the United States District Court of the Northern District of Alabama. That order called for the admission of two clearly qualified young Alabama residents who happened to have been born Negro. That they were admitted peacefully on the campus is due in good measure to the conduct of the students of the University of Alabama, who met their responsibilities in a constructive way.

I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.

Today, we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. And when Americans are sent to Vietnam or West Berlin, we do not ask for whites only. It ought to be possible, therefore, for American students of any color to attend any public institution they select without having to be backed up by troops.

It ought to be possible for American consumers of any color to receive equal service in places of public accommodation, such as hotels and restaurants and theaters and retail stores, without being forced to resort to demonstrations in the street, and it ought to be possible for American citizens of any color to register and to vote in a free election without interference or fear of reprisal.

It ought to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color. In short, every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. But this is not the case.

The Negro baby born in America today, regardless of the section of the State in which he is born, has about one-half as much chance of completing a high school as a white baby born in the same place on the same day, one-third as much chance of completing college, one-third as much chance of becoming a professional man, twice as much chance of becoming unemployed, about one-seventh as much chance of earning $10,000 a year, a life expectancy which is 7 years shorter, and the prospects of earning only half as much.

This is not a sectional issue. Difficulties over segregation and discrimination exist in every city, in every State of the Union, producing in many cities a rising tide of discontent that threatens the public safety. Nor is this a partisan issue. In a time of domestic crisis men of good will and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics. This is not even a legal or legislative issue alone. It is better to settle these matters in the courts than on the streets, and new laws are needed at every level, but law alone cannot make men see right. We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution.

The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated. If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public, if he cannot send his children to the best public school available, if he cannot vote for the public officials who will represent him, if, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place? Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and delay?

One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.

We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is the land of the free except for the Negroes; that we have no second-class citizens except Negroes; that we have no class or caste system, no ghettoes, no master race except with respect to Negroes?

Now the time has come for this Nation to fulfill its promise. The events in Birmingham and elsewhere have so increased the cries for equality that no city or State or legislative body can prudently choose to ignore them. The fires of frustration and discord are burning in every city, North and South, where legal remedies are not at hand. Redress is sought in the streets, in demonstrations, parades, and protests which create tensions and threaten violence and threaten lives.

We face, therefore, a moral crisis as a country and a people. It cannot be met by repressive police action. It cannot be left to increased demonstrations in the streets. It cannot be quieted by token moves or talk. It is a time to act in the Congress, in your State and local legislative body and, above all, in all of our daily lives.

It is not enough to pin the blame on others, to say this a problem of one section of the country or another, or deplore the facts that we face. A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all.

Those who do nothing are inviting shame, as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right, as well as reality.

Next week I shall ask the Congress of the United States to act, to make a commitment it has not fully made in this century to the proposition that race has no place in American life or law. The Federal judiciary has upheld that proposition in a series of forthright cases. The Executive Branch has adopted that proposition in the conduct of its affairs, including the employment of Federal personnel, the use of Federal facilities, and the sale of federally financed housing.

But there are other necessary measures which only the Congress can provide, and they must be provided at this session. The old code of equity law under which we live commands for every wrong a remedy, but in too many communities, in too many parts of the country, wrongs are inflicted on Negro citizens and there are no remedies at law. Unless the Congress acts, their only remedy is the street.

I am, therefore, asking the Congress to enact legislation giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public—hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments. This seems to me to be an elementary right. Its denial is an arbitrary indignity that no American in 1963 should have to endure, but many do.

I have recently met with scores of business leaders urging them to take voluntary action to end this discrimination, and I have been encouraged by their response, and in the last two weeks over 75 cities have seen progress made in desegregating these kinds of facilities. But many are unwilling to act alone, and for this reason, nationwide legislation is needed if we are to move this problem from the streets to the courts.

I'm also asking the Congress to authorize the Federal Government to participate more fully in lawsuits designed to end segregation in public education. We have succeeded in persuading many districts to desegregate voluntarily. Dozens have admitted Negroes without violence. Today, a Negro is attending a State-supported institution in every one of our 50 States, but the pace is very slow.

Too many Negro children entering segregated grade schools at the time of the Supreme Court's decision nine years ago will enter segregated high schools this fall, having suffered a loss which can never be restored. The lack of an adequate education denies the Negro a chance to get a decent job.

The orderly implementation of the Supreme Court decision, therefore, cannot be left solely to those who may not have the economic resources to carry the legal action or who may be subject to harassment.

Other features will be also requested, including greater protection for the right to vote. But legislation, I repeat, cannot solve this problem alone. It must be solved in the homes of every American in every community across our country.

In this respect I wanna pay tribute to those citizens North and South who've been working in their communities to make life better for all. They are acting not out of sense of legal duty but out of a sense of human decency. Like our soldiers and sailors in all parts of the world they are meeting freedom's challenge on the firing line, and I salute them for their honor and their courage.

My fellow Americans, this is a problem which faces us all—in every city of the North as well as the South. Today, there are Negroes unemployed, two or three times as many compared to whites, inadequate education, moving into the large cities, unable to find work, young people particularly out of work without hope, denied equal rights, denied the opportunity to eat at a restaurant or a lunch counter or go to a movie theater, denied the right to a decent education, denied almost today the right to attend a State university even though qualified.

It seems to me that these are matters which concern us all, not merely Presidents or Congressmen or Governors, but every citizen of the United States.

This is one country. It has become one country because all of us and all the people who came here had an equal chance to develop their talents. We cannot say to ten percent of the population that you can't have that right; that your children cannot have the chance to develop whatever talents they have; that the only way that they are going to get their rights is to go in the street and demonstrate. I think we owe them and we owe ourselves a better country than that.

Therefore, I'm asking for your help in making it easier for us to move ahead and to provide the kind of equality of treatment which we would want ourselves; to give a chance for every child to be educated to the limit of his talents.

As I've said before, not every child has an equal talent or an equal ability or equal motivation, but they should have the equal right to develop their talent and their ability and their motivation, to make something of themselves.

We have a right to expect that the Negro community will be responsible, will uphold the law, but they have a right to expect that the law will be fair, that the Constitution will be color blind, as Justice Harlan said at the turn of the century.

This is what we're talking about and this is a matter which concerns this country and what it stands for, and in meeting it I ask the support of all our citizens.

Thank you very much.

肯尼迪于1963年在白宮發(fā)表關于民權的電視講話 中文版

今天下午，繼一系列恐嚇與挑釁性聲明之后，阿拉巴馬州國民衛(wèi)隊受命到阿拉巴馬大學，執(zhí)行美國阿拉巴馬州北區(qū)地區(qū)法院不容置疑的終審裁定。該裁定要求允許兩位恰好生為黑人，但顯然合格的阿拉巴馬州年輕居民入學。他們得以安然入學，很大程度上歸功于阿拉巴馬大學學生們的舉動，這些學生以建設性的方式履行了自己的責任。

我希望每個美國人，無論身居何處，都靜下心來就此事及其他相關事件捫心自問。美國是由具有不同背景的多民族人民建立起來的國家。其建國原則是人人生來平等，一人權利受威脅則人人權利被削弱。

今天，我們致力于促進和保護全球所有向往自由者之權利的斗爭。當派遣美國人去越南或西柏林時，我們并不要求都是白種人。因此，任何膚色的美國學生都應當可以到其選擇的任何公立學府就讀，而無須部隊做后盾。

任何膚色的美國消費者都應當在賓館、餐廳、劇場和零售店等公共場所接受平等的服務，而不會被迫上街示威;任何膚色的美國公民都應當注冊參加自由選舉投票，而不會受到阻撓或害怕報復。

總而言之，每個美國人都應當享有身為美國人的特權，而不必顧及其種族或膚色。每個美國人都應當有權受到其所希望的待遇，受到任何人都希望自己子女所受到的待遇。但事實卻并非如此。

今天出生在美國的黑人孩子，無論出生在美國何地，與同日同地出生的白人孩子相比，其完成中學學業(yè)的可能性約為1/2，完成大學學業(yè)的可能性為1/3，成為專業(yè)人士的可能性為1/3，失業(yè)的可能性為2倍，每年掙得10000美元的可能性約為1/7，預期壽命縮短7年，而預期收入則只有一半。

這不是地區(qū)性問題。種族隔離與歧視的難題存在于每座城市，存在于聯(lián)邦的每個州，從而在許多城市引起日益高漲的不滿情緒，這種不滿情緒威脅著公共安全。這也不是黨派性問題。在國內危機時期，善良慷慨的人應當能夠不分黨派或政治主張地團結起來。這甚至不僅是法律或立法性問題。這些問題在法庭解決要比在街上解決更好，而每一層次都需要制定新的法律，但僅有法律并不能讓人們看到正義，我們面對的主要是道義性問題。這個問題像圣經(jīng)一樣古老，如《美國憲法》一般明確。

問題的核心是，所有美國人是否都應當享有平等的權力和平等的機會，我們是否能像我們希望他人對待我們一樣去對待我們的美國同胞。如果一個美國人因膚色黝黑而不能在公共餐廳就餐，不能送子女到最好的公立學校就讀，不能投票選舉代表自己的公職人員，總而言之，不能享受我們大家都希望享受的全部自由生活，那么，我們當中有誰愿意改變自己的膚色，設身處地的體驗一下?我們當中又有誰會滿足于讓你耐心等待的勸告?

林肯總統(tǒng)解放奴隸已經(jīng)過去一百年，而他們的子孫后代尚未得到全面解放。他們尚未從不公正的枷鎖中解放出來，他們尚未從社會和經(jīng)濟的壓迫中解放出來。而這個國家，盡管有諸多希望和榮耀，卻不會得到全面解放，直到其全體公民都得到解放。

我們在全世界宣揚自由，我們說到做到，我們珍惜我們在本國的自由。但是，我們如何對世界說，更重要的是我們如何對身邊的人說：“這是自由的國度，但黑人除外;我們沒有二等公民，但黑人除外;我們沒有等級或階級制度，沒有種族隔離聚居區(qū)，沒有優(yōu)等民族，但黑人除外?”

現(xiàn)在是這個國家該履行其諾言的時候了。伯明翰等地的事件使要求平等的呼聲如此高漲，令任何城市、州或立法機構都無法選擇視而不見。失望和紛爭之火在每座城市燃燒，在南北方?jīng)]有法律補救措施的地方燃燒。人們上街示威、游行、抗議，以此來尋求補救之法，然而卻制造著緊張情緒，預示著暴力，威脅著生命。

因此，作為一個國家，作為一國人民，我們面臨著一場道義危機。這場危機不能靠警方的鎮(zhèn)壓行動來解決，不能將其留給街頭上日益浩大的示威游行去解決，也不能靠象征性的舉動或說教將其平息下去。已經(jīng)到了該采取行動的時刻，要在國會采取行動，要在您所在的州和地方立法機構采取行動，尤其是要在我們日常生活的方方面面采取行動。

歸咎于他人，或者說成是國家某一地區(qū)的問題，或者哀嘆我們所面對的事實，這些都不足以解決問題。一場重大變革在即，而我們的任務、我們的義務是使這場革命、這場變革對于所有人都是和平的和具有建設性的。

無所作為者是在自取恥辱和鼓勵暴力，而勇敢行動者是在承認正義和現(xiàn)實。

下周，我將要求美國國會采取行動，做出其在本世紀尚未完全做出的承諾，以兌現(xiàn)讓種族歧視在美國的生活和法律中無立足之地的主張。聯(lián)邦司法系統(tǒng)在處理其事務的過程中維護了這一主張，這些事務包括雇用聯(lián)邦人員、使用聯(lián)邦設施和出售聯(lián)邦投資的房產(chǎn)。

但是，還有一些只有國會才能采取的必要措施，必須在本次會議上采取。我們生活所遵循的古老公平的法典要求有錯必糾，但是，在我國很多地區(qū)，很多社團中，黑人公民正蒙受著不公正的待遇，卻沒有依法補救的措施。除非國會采取行動，否則他們唯一補救的方法就是走上街頭。

因此，我要求國會立法，賦予所有美國人在賓館、餐廳、劇場、零售店以及類似公共場所享受服務的權利。這在我看來是一項基本權利。對這項基本權利的剝奪是恣意損害公民尊嚴的行為，是1963年的美國人不應當被迫容忍的行為，但有許多人卻在容忍。

我最近會見了許多工商界領導人，敦促他們采取主動措施來終止這種歧視。我為他們的響應感到鼓舞。過去兩周中，我在75座城市看到這類場所在取消種族隔離方面取得了進展。但是，有許多人不愿單獨采取行動。因此，如果我們要將此問題從街頭轉移到法庭，就需要有全國性的立法。

我還要求國會授權聯(lián)邦政府更全面地干預旨在終止公共教育界種族隔離制度的訴訟案。我們已經(jīng)成功地說服許多區(qū)主動廢除種族隔離制度，有數(shù)十所學校平和地接收了黑人學生。今天，我們50個州中的每個州都有一名黑人學生到州立學府就讀，但這樣的進展速度非常緩慢。

在9年前最高法院裁決時，有很多黑人兒童進入種族隔離的小學，他們將在今年秋季進入種族隔離的中學，因此蒙受了永遠無法彌補的損失。黑人由于缺乏足夠的教育而失去了獲得體面工作的機會。

因此，不能把有序執(zhí)行最高法院裁決的任務，完全留給可能沒有財力進行法律訴訟的人，或者可能受到困擾的人。

我還將要求采取其他重要舉措，包括加大對投票權的保護力度。但是，我再說一遍，只靠立法不能解決這一問題。必須在我國每個社區(qū)的每個美國人的家里解決這一問題。

在這方面，我要贊美一直在其社區(qū)致力于改善所有人生活的南方和北方的公民們。他們的行為不是出于法律義務感，而是出于人的道義感。像我們在世界各地的陸海軍戰(zhàn)士一樣，他們在火線上迎接著對自由的挑戰(zhàn)，我為他們的榮譽和勇氣向他們致敬。

同胞們，這是我們全體人民面臨的問題，是南方和北方每座城市的美國人面臨的問題。今天，有兩到三倍于白人的黑人失業(yè)，黑人得不到適當?shù)慕逃谌艘凭哟蟪鞘泻笳也坏焦ぷ?，特別是年輕黑人無望地失業(yè)，黑人被剝奪了平等的權利，黑人被剝奪了在餐廳或小吃店就餐或者去影劇院的機會，黑人被剝奪了接受體面教育的權利，而就在今天，還有黑人即使具備資格也險些被剝奪了到州立大學就讀的權利。

在我看來，這些問題關系到我們所有人，不僅僅關系到總統(tǒng)、參議員或州長，而是關系到每個美國公民。

這是一個國家。它之所以成為一個國家，是因為我們大家以及來到這里的每一個人都擁有開發(fā)其天賦的平等機會。我們不能對10%的人口說你們不能有這種權利，不能說你們的子女不能有開發(fā)其任何天賦的機會，不能說他們爭取其權利的唯一方法是上街示威。我認為我們欠他們，也欠我們自己一個比這更好的國家。

所以，我請你們幫助我們取得進展，來提供我們自己想要的那種平等待遇;協(xié)助我們?yōu)槊總€兒童提供機會，接受教育，充分開發(fā)其天賦。

我曾經(jīng)說過，并非每個兒童都具有同等的天賦、能力或能動性，但他們應當擁有開發(fā)其天賦、能力和能動性的平等權利，以便能憑己之力有所成就。

我們有權利期望黑人社區(qū)負起責任并維護法律;但他們也有權利期望法律公平，期望《憲法》對不同膚色一視同仁，正如哈蘭大法官在世紀之交時所說。

這就是我們所談的問題，而這問題關系到這個國家及其主張。為解決這一問題，我請求我們的全體公民予以支持。

非常感謝你們。