BLOG # 10

What evidence does LBJ offer as proof of the widening economic gap between black and white Americans? How does he explain this gap?How are the sentiments he expressed represented in the cartoon?
In President Lyndon B. Johnson's Commencement Address at Howard University: "To Fulfill These Rights" on June 4, 1965, he gives proof of the widening gap between black and white Americans in the unemployment rate. "Thirty-five years ago the rate of unemployment for Negroes and whites was about the same. Tonight the Negro rate is twice as high." Another example he gives is the comparison of income. "Between 1949 and 1959, the income of Negro men relative to white men declined in every section of this country. From 1952 to 1963 the median income of Negro families compared to white actually dropped from 57 percent to 53 percent." He explains the gap as first due to Negros being trapped in inherited poverty. He also explains the gap as "the devastating heritage of long years of slavery; and a century of oppression, hatred, and injustice" for Negros. In the cartoon he shows that after the white man walked all over the black to get a good postion in society, the white man claims to have achieved this on his own and says the black man should be no different. LBJ realizes that the african Americans need help if they are to pull themselves out of poverty.