Home / Full timeline / President Nixon responds to Black Caucus’s grievances assuring he is committed to his continued support. In almost all of the recommendations, the president differed with the caucus in amounts and scope of reform programs. The Black Caucus charged that the administration “lacked a sense of understanding, urgency and commitment in dealing with the critical problems facing Black Americans.”
President Nixon responds to Black Caucus’s grievances assuring he is committed to his continued support. In almost all of the recommendations, the president differed with the caucus in amounts and scope of reform programs. The Black Caucus charged that the administration “lacked a sense of understanding, urgency and commitment in dealing with the critical problems facing Black Americans.”
1971 (May 18)
In a 115-page report, President Richard Nixon told the Black Caucus of the House of Representatives that his administration would continue to support "jobs, income, and tangible benefits, the pledges that this society has made to the disadvantaged in the past decade." The President was responding to a list of sixty grievances the Black Congressmen had asked him to consider in a meeting on March 25, 1971. The President announced that he agreed with the caucus's welfare reform proposals but limited his guaranteed annual income figure to $2,400, compared to the $6,500 a year figure proposed by the Blacks. In almost all of the recommendations, the president differed with the caucus in amounts and scope of reform programs. For instance, the Black legislators suggested one million summer jobs for youths; the President promised 500,000 jobs, with some 300,000 more being made available through private sectors. The Black Caucus received the report through the office of its chairman, Representative Charles C. Diggs, Jr., from Michigan. After studying the report, the caucus issued a seventy-six-page reaction that expressed its disappointment. The legislators called the president's message "a mere codification of slim efforts" rather than “massive immediate aid for minorities and the poor." In the end, the Blacks charged, the administration "lacked a sense of understanding, urgency and commitment in dealing with the critical problems facing Black Americans." It was pointed out that only one of the sixty demands was fully agreed on by both sides the formation of a task force to study the problems of Black soldiers and veterans.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.