But America stands for progress in human rights as well as economic
affairs, and a strong America requires the assurance of full and equal
rights to all its citizens, of any race or of any color. This
Administration has shown as never before how much could be done through the
full use of Executive powers--through the enforcement of laws already
passed by the Congress--through persuasion, negotiation, and litigation, to
secure the constitutional rights of all: the right to vote, the right to
travel without hindrance across State lines, and the right to free public
education.
I issued last March a comprehensive order to guarantee the right to equal
employment opportunity in all Federal agencies and contractors. The Vice
President's Committee thus created has done much, including the voluntary
"Plans for Progress" which, in all sections of the country, are achieving a
quiet but striking success in opening up to all races new professional,
supervisory, and other job opportunities.
But there is much more to be done--by the Executive, by the courts, and by
the Congress. Among the bills now pending before you, on which the
executive departments will comment in detail, are appropriate methods of
strengthening these basic rights which have our full support. The right to
vote, for example, should no longer be denied through such arbitrary
devices on a local level, sometimes abused, such as literacy tests and poll
taxes. As we approach the 100th anniversary, next January, of the
Emancipation Proclamation, let the acts of every branch of the
Government--and every citizen--portray that "righteousness does exalt a
nation."