Kelly Alexander, Sr. speech fragments and Kelly Alexander, Jr. Charlotte City Council address

              itself, of the democratic way of life by which she lives, by which she
has come to occupy the place of leadership among the nations of the
earth.  For at this very moment both our domestic and foreign policies
need desperately an affirmative action on civil rights.
Racial and religious minorities form a sizable:,;segment of our
population.  Continued marginal living for them, continued discrimination and segregation and exclusion, continued second-class citizenship has bred unrest and dissatisfaction. As long as disfranchisement, segregation, mob violence, sub-standard housing, Jim crow education, and sharply restricted employment opportunities constitute
their lot, no hosannas will be raised among them by fervent and even
feverish pleas to sustain our way of life. Unemployment is twice as
great among minority groups as it is among the population as a whole.
Democracy will be safe when every citizen has a stake in saving
it.
Our foreign policy is embarrassed constantly by the glaring imperfections in our democratic structure, but even more so by the failure of our Federal government to act in securing democratic civil
rights for all its citizens.  Some of us—and they are persons who
are opposed to an effective FEPC in the U.S.A.—are now talking about
using guns to save democracy in Formosa.  Others would use both money
and guns to save democracy in Europe. Few of these oeople realize
chat democracy cannot be carried to victory in either a cold or hot
war on a bayonet or a dollar bill.  It will win only if it is a
strong, functioning way of living full of precious meaning for men
and women who yearn for Justice, peace, and security.
In this setting our Congress has moved to tighten, rather than
loosen, the machinery for action.  It looks fearfully backward.  It
yearns for the good old days.