26

America in the Sixties. Fueled by the fire from the Southern
Civil Rights Movement and the national anti-war drive, drawing
leadership from the grassroots, it threatened to challenge the
foundations of racial and economic arrogance that had created
vast reservations of the unwanted on this country's soil.

That movement become the partial victim of its own
success. It fought for and won the right to sit in front of the
bus, to cast a vote, to sit at a lunch counter. It launched a
southern Black political movement, but it failed to sustain and
extend itself, and instead saw itself dissipated by struggles on
the edge.

During the decade of the 1960's, a great social movement
fought to win a place at the table for those citizens previously
consigned to eating in the kitchen if indeed they ate at all.

Now that the legal and extralegal barriers have been largely
removed, the battle for the remainder of the twentieth century is
to close the widening gap.

None of us has much difficulty envisioning the world we want
or the programs, which if adopted, would ring the new dawn in.

We want a society whose single aim is the democratic
satisfaction of the needs of its people.

We want to guarantee all Americans an equal opportunity to
participate in the organization of society, and in the shaping of
public and private decisions which affect their lives.

We want to guarantee that no one goes without the basic
necessities - food, shelter, healthcare, a healthy environment,
personal safety and an adequate income.