Post by Moses on Jul 2, 2004 8:54:07 GMT -5
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July 2, 2004
Bush Marks 40th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
ASHINGTON, July 1 - President Bush marked the 40th anniversary of the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on Thursday, telling an audience at a White House ceremony that the United States has been a better place since the law was passed but that the problem the legislation addressed has yet to be eradicated.
"The work of equality is not done, because the evil of bigotry is not finally defeated," Mr. Bush said. "Yet the laws of this nation and the good heart of this nation are on the side of equality, and as Dr. King reminded us, we must not rest until the day when 'justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.' "
Mr. Bush spoke in the East Room of the White House, where on July 2, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the act into law, a day after it passed the Senate, 73 to 27. Among those present on Thursday was Luci Baines Johnson Turpin, President Johnson's daughter, and Mr. Bush spoke admiringly of the roles played by Mr. Johnson and President John F. Kennedy in proposing the act and getting it passed.
"It was more than the force of Johnson's personality that helped win the day," Mr. Bush said of his fellow Texan. "It was the force of President Johnson's conviction on behalf of a just cause. As a young man, he'd seen the ugly effects of discrimination. As president, he was determined to fight it by law regardless of the political risk."
Although Mr. Bush's remarks transcended election-year partisanship and reflected what his aides say is a deep and longstanding commitment to racial reconciliation, there was still politics in the air.
Mr. Bush has long sought to broaden his party's base of support and to eat away at the hold Democrats have had on big majorities of black voters and other minorities, especially Hispanics, by casting himself as a "compassionate conservative" whose policies promote social equality and economic opportunity for all people.
Mr. Bush received about 8 percent of the black vote in 2000, down from 12 percent for Bob Dole, the Republican nominee in 1996. He did better among Hispanic voters, getting 31 percent compared with Mr. Dole's 21 percent. But the White House political team has long viewed winning over more minority voters as an urgent imperative because of the rapid growth in the nonwhite population.
Matthew Dowd, the chief strategist for Mr. Bush's re-election campaign, calculated several years ago that if the Republican ticket were to take the same percentages of the Hispanic, black and white vote in 2004 as it did in 2000, it would lose the popular vote by three million ballots and the Electoral College. In 2000, Mr. Bush received 544,000 fewer votes than Al Gore but won the Electoral College.
Asked about Mr. Bush's record on civil rights and racial matters, the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said Thursday that the president could point to "a record of accomplishment." In particular, he cited Mr. Bush's advocacy of the education bill passed early in his term, which had a strong emphasis on improving performance among underperforming schools in poor neighborhoods. He also pointed to an increase in the minority homeownership rate and what he said was vigorous enforcement of civil rights laws by the Justice Department.
The presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has been trying to shore up support among minority voters. On Thursday the Kerry campaign attacked Mr. Bush's record on racial issues. The Kerry campaign said Mr. Bush had nominated federal judges who wanted to roll back civil rights, sought to curtail affirmative action programs in university admissions, underfinanced the education bill and cut back on civil rights cases at the Justice Department.
"When it comes to civil rights, the gap between what George Bush likes to tout and what he's actually done is enormous," Phil Singer, a spokesman for Mr. Kerry, said in a statement.
www.nytimes.com/2004/07/02/politics/campaign/02bush.html?th=&pagewanted=print&position=