Ncrac Proposes Massive Program to Outlaw Inequality, Injustice, Poverty

Nine major national Jewish agencies and 81 community relations agencies affiliated with the National Community Relations Advisory Council, called today for a comprehensive Federal program to “banish inequality, injustice and poverty” from this land and said that they and their membership were prepared “willingly to assume whatever share may fall upon us” of the economic costs entailed. They called upon President Johnson to propose this comprehensive program and on Congress to enact it.

A resolution adopted by the executive committee of NCRAC Sunday and transmitted to President Johnson affirmed that this country “has the resources to provide all our people with the essentials of a decent, dignified human life, while meeting our obligations abroad.” It said that “failure to use those resources to banish inequality, injustice and poverty is as immoral as it is indefensible. There can be no higher priority for the nation.” The resolution expressed readiness to assume a share of the costs involved and urged member organizations and their constituents “to make known to their legislators and other officials of government their like commitment.” It pledged the fullest commitment to programs of education and interpretation to assure acceptance and support of the proposed measures “as matters of the greatest urgency.”

RESOLUTION STRESSES NEED FOR SPEEDY ACTION TO AVOID ‘DESTRUCTIVE COURSE’

The program urged on the President and Congress would provide, the resolution stated, a decent job for all who are employable or can be made so by retraining; income sufficient to provide all others with essentials of civilized living; decent dwellings for all; medical care for all; education to the limits of each person’s capacity, and the elimination of all forms of discrimination and segregation from the life of our society.

The resolution noted that the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr., and the emotions aroused by it, attested to the urgency of decisive action. It warned that such action must be initiated now lest the nation “be precipitated into an irreversibly destructive course toward internecine strife that could sunder our national unity and debase the character of our social order.” It denounced rioting pillaging and looting but warned that the alternative to violence must not be “blind repression.” noting that the sources of the disorders “lie deep in the long history of enslavement, oppression, denial, segregation and discrimination to which Negroes have been subjected in our society.”

In his letter of transmittal to President Johnson, Jordan C. Band, NCRAC chairman, expressed the hope that the Civil Rights Bill of 1968 would be enacted within the next few days. He urged, as “priority measures,” passage of the Housing and Development Act of 1968, including funds for expanded rend supplement and model cities programs; legislation to create meaningful jobs in vitally needed public services for citizens able and willing to work but unable to find employment in the private sector; repeal of the restrictive welfare provisions freezing the number of children in fatherless homes who can receive help under the AFDC program, and a supplemental appropriation for the Office of Economic Opportunity to bring current appropriations to authorized levels, to replace diverted funds and to provide funds for special summer programs of employment, education and recreation.

MEETING DISCUSSED PROBLEM OF JEWISH MERCHANTS WHO WERE VICTIMS OF RIOTING

The resolution was adopted at a meeting last Sunday that had been in the preparatory stages for at least two weeks before Dr. King’s assassination. Several major organizations which are not members of the NCRAC participated in the deliberations and made it clear that they considered themselves equally involved. Community relations councils throughout the country were advised following the meeting that it would be desirable for them to seek the involvement of other communal agencies in support of the program adopted.

It was learned that during the discussion in the committee session Sunday, deep concern was expressed for the Jewish merchants who were among the victims of the disorders that followed the King assassination. Community relations councils in cities where disorders occurred were urged to participate in developing special approaches for counseling and for practical assistance to these victims. Participants in the Sunday meeting stressed the belief that an immediate and greatly reinforced commitment to effective programs to meet the current crisis must be forthcoming from the Jewish community.

Guidelines for the community councils noted that “in the forefront of impediments to the enactment of meaningful legislation to meet the urban crisis is the question of money.” It was, consequently, important that the lawmakers be made aware that there was “readiness to support additional taxes to finance the programs we are calling for.” This was necessary in view of the mood of retrenchment in Congress on domestic issues and the prevailing reluctance to raise taxes, it was pointed out.