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Portland Observer
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Thursday. May 8. 1076
Pictorial Review
HACD Conference Theme
”200 Years Of Poverty is Enough-Fulfill The Dream”
People As Important As Highways
Civil Rights Needs Enforcement
Reorder National Priorities
A major speaker at the NACD Con
ference was Arthur A. Fletcher. Deputy
Assistant to the President of the United
States for Urban Affairs. Speaking on
Civil Rights Fletcher said, "The Civil
Rights Legislation, like Court decisions,
are not self enforcing. Unless there are
some human entities involved, commit
ted to paying the price of enforcing the
law after it gets on the books, an
individual who shows how to use the
legislation, his budget and the human
WASHINGTON
resources so that it makes it happen,
HILTON
it'll never happen." "Those of us who
made the Civil Rights Movement hap
pen are not through yet. There's some
hard work to be done. And that calls
for, not rhetoric, that calls for compe
ten ce and technical m ilitancy...N ow
from here on in. it is a technical strug
gle. We have to change the profile of
capability for minorities and poor people
so that they have the capacity to get
inside government, at the Federal. State and local level, and make it happen
(enforcing the work Martin Luther King did for poor people).
for Community Development spoke to the 1,500 conferees at
the annual conference saying, “As we approach the next
year, we must seek legislation which will provide adequate
funding for all programs designed to assist the 35 million
Americans living in poverty." He said, “We must bring
about a reordering of our national priorities. Any nation
that can pass some $40 billion for foreign aid and assistance
to under developed nations can certainly afford to spend
some $3 billion to maintain its current level of support for the
poor.”
Senator Edward M. Kennedy and Gilcrease were critical of the Administration's
policy with regard to social programs at the NACD Annual Conference. Kennedy
told conveners. "Our government estimates there are thirty million poor Americans
-- but the Administration's budget this year grossly neglects any national
responsibility for those who are deprived and oppressed. The sad reality is that
this budget reduces income security programs for the poor, the disabled and the
jobless by $4 billion....If the Federal government can pay ninety percent of the cost
of upgrading interstate highways then it can pay ninety percent of the cost of
upgrading the lives of people...Your theme for this convention declares that "200
Years of Poverty is Enough
Fulfill the Promise. I concur.”
A nation that can spend $40 billion
in foreign aid can afford
$3 billion for the poor
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Urged Full Funding For C S A Programs
Petitions Request Attention To Poverty-Ills
NACD President Cleveland Gilcrease is shown being
interviewed by a Washington, D.C. news person in his
attempt to present petitions to the President of the
United States. “The petitions." Gilcrease said, "carried
nearly 300,000 signatures of poor people and their
supporters throughout the nation. The petitions re
quested immediate enactment of legislation to address
the many ills which beset nearly forty million Ameri
cans." With Gilcrease from left to right are W. Dean
Goldsby, NACD S ecretary Treasurer; Ms. Virginia
Barfield, third Vice President; and Wilbert Russell,
President, National Community Action Program Direr
tors Association.
The Twelfth Annual Conference of the National
Association for Community Development met in Wash
ington, D.C. A total of 1,500 delegates, representing
approximately 900 Community Action Agencies and a
national membership of 18, (MX) emphasized the need for
continued funding of their agencies by the Community
Services Administration and other Federal agencies.
They expressed their disagreement over the require
ment to increase local matching support for Federal
funds and urged the full funding for all CSA programs.