13

13

per cent for whites.

"Between 1949 and 1959, the income of Negro men relative to white men declined in every section of the country. From 1952 to 1963 the median income of Negro families compared to white actually dropped from 57 per cent to 53 per cent.

................................................................

"Since 1947 the number of white families living in poverty has decreased 27 per cent, while the number of poor nonwhite families decreased only 3 per cent.

"The infant mortality of non whites in 1940 was 70 per cent greater than whites. Twenty-two years later it was 90 per cen t greater.

"Moreover, the isolation of Negroes from white communitiues in increasing, rather than decreasing, as Negroes crowd into the central cities and becomne a city within a city."

This is a record of failure despite political success. And it has led to a general crisis of confidence in the fairness of the American political system.

"A voteless people," a national fraternity used to say, "is a hopeless people."

We know now, from the example of Chicago and Watts and Detroit, that a voting people can also be a hopless people. And I think it is incumbent upon all black Americans, in the light of this knowledge, to rethink their relation to American politics.

I have suggested here thaty conventional politics is designed to prevent fundamental needs of black people without a social revolution. If these hypotheses are correct--and I offer the whole history of America as evidence--it is incumbent upon us to either revitalize conventional politics or abandon conventional poltics.

A new politics is necessary in American because the old politics has failed us. And I believe that the salvation of the black man in this country and the creation of democracy in this country depend, to a very great extent, on the creation of a new political vision in the black community.

I believe we must make a radical reevaluation of all our traditional political alliances in the light of the needs and the intercats of the overwhelming majority of

13

per cent for whites.

"Between 1949 and 1959, the income of Negro men relative to white men declined in every section of the country. From 1952 to 1963 the median income of Negro families compared to white actually dropped from 57 per cent to 53 per cent.

................................................................

"Since 1947 the number of white families living in poverty has decreased 27 per cent, while the number of poor nonwhite families decreased only 3 per cent.

"The infant mortality of non whites in 1940 was 70 per cent greater than whites. Twenty-two years later it was 90 per cen t greater.

"Moreover, the isolation of Negroes from white communitiues in increasing, rather than decreasing, as Negroes crowd into the central cities and becomne a city within a city."

This is a record of failure despite political success. And it has led to a general crisis of confidence in the fairness of the American political system.

"A voteless people," a national fraternity used to say, "is a hopeless people."

We know now, from the example of Chicago and Watts and Detroit, that a voting people can also be a hopless people. And I think it is incumbent upon all black Americans, in the light of this knowledge, to rethink their relation to American politics.

I have suggested here thaty conventional politics is designed to prevent fundamental needs of black people without a social revolution. If these hypotheses are correct--and I offer the whole history of America as evidence--it is incumbent upon us to either revitalize conventional politics or abandon conventional poltics.

A new politics is necessary in American because the old politics has failed us. And I believe that the salvation of the black man in this country and the creation of democracy in this country depend, to a very great extent, on the creation of a new political vision in the black community.

I believe we must make a radical reevaluation of all our traditional political alliances in the light of the needs and the intercats of the overwhelming majority of