342 Feb. 20 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 1996 faith of Islam here in the United States and I just want to make a couple of brief around the world the traditional greeting: As- points. This country does still need the Salaamu Alaykum, may peace be with you, NAACP. Oh, we are here in the Justice De- and may God grant you health and prosperity partment today because of what the NAACP now and in the years ahead. has meant to us. When I was the age of these young people here, I can remember what it NOTE: The President's remarks were recorded at was like, still, to have a church burned in 5:26 p.m. on February 16 in the Map Room at your home State, to have people intimidated the White House for later broadcast. This tran- away from pursuing their legal rights. script was released by the Office of the Press Sec- We are here because of what the NAACP retary on February 20. has meant to America. To me and to Al Gore, growing up as white southerners in the South, we loved the NAACP. It made us be- Remarks at the Swearing-In of lieve that something good was going to come Kweisi Mfume as President of the at the end of the civil rights struggle. It made National Association for the us believe that we could all live together and Advancement of Colored People grow together. But we know today in this February 20, 1996 age of incredible possibility for our country, when we have the African-American unem- Thank you very much, Myrlie Evers-Wil- ployment rate in single digits for the first liams, for your introduction, for your re- time in 20 years, 100,000 new African-Amer- marks, and most importantly, for your will- ican owned businessesÐwe know still that ingness to take on what appeared to be a more than half our people are working hard- thankless and could well have been a no-win er just to keep up. situation in seizing the helm of the NAACP We know still that, as we glory in these and helping to bring it to this moment of young people being in college, that the col- great celebration and unity. The entire Na- lege-going rate is going up, but the college- tion is in your debt, and we thank you. going rate among young people who come To the distinguished Members of Con- from the poorest fifth of our families has lev- gress, the mayors who are here, the clergy, eled off and going down because of the costs. members of the administration; to the young And we know we must never go back to the people who have performed, and the family days of the black church bombings, the other of Congressman Mfume. Kweisi told me terrible acts of racial terrorism. today before we came out that this is a cele- And so I want to say, too, we need the bration of rebirth and renewal. And the Vice NAACP today not only because there are still President and I were standing there amidst economic problems and elementary social di- hisÐfour of his five strapping young sons; visions. We have to do everything we can to the other is in school or he would be here, see that we determine, in this Justice Depart- showing that he still has his priorities in ment, who created these recent crimes and order. [Laughter] He said, ``This is going to all of us stand together against any kind of be a celebration of rebirth and renewal. And return to that. so I have given this over to the young people Let me say as I look across this crowd and and to Roger Wilkins.'' [Laughter] I see so many peopleÐI don't want to call And I must say, as I heard Jaimie speak, names, but I want to say just one thing about and as I heard Jason speak for the Arkansas our public life. I see Reverend Jackson and contingent here, and as I heard Ayinde Mrs. King and Dexter and Congressman and speakÐby the way, I memorized that poem, Secretary Kemp standing there, sitting there. and I never spoke it half that wellÐand then One of the men who wanted to replace me I heard the Morgan State Choir sing, I in the Presidential election this year had to thought this really is about rebirth and re- undergo the agony of having leaflets passed newal and energy and youth. And I kept cut- out against his Asian-American wife. That is ting my speech shorter and shorter. [Laugh- wrong. We still need the NAACP, and no ter] party can tolerate that sort of thing. And none VerDate 28-OCT-97 09:54 Jan 09, 1998 Jkt 010199 PO 00000 Frm 00030 Fmt 1244 Sfmt 1244 W:\DISC\P08FE4.022 p08fe4 Administration of William J. Clinton, 1996 / Feb. 20 343 of our people should. We're all the same in young Job Corps trainees from Maryland this country, and we still haven't learned that perished in the train crash just a few days yet. ago. Like most of you, I sat there, a helpless If you look at where we are and where citizen, watching it on television, thinking we're going, we can never create opportunity about all of the promise of those children. for all Americans who are willing to assume But let me remind you that they were given the responsibility to seize it unless we deter- a chance, and we should remember them and mine to go into the future together. That's honor them by determining to give every what the NAACP must remind us of. That child who needs a chance the chance they is the great lesson of America, and unfortu- were given. And that is why we need the nately, not every American has learned it yet. NAACP and why we need Kweisi Mfume to And until we all learn it and live by it, we lead it. We should honor that. will need the NAACP. Let me finally say that his constituents Let me also say that when Kweisi called have given him the greatest recommendation me to tell me that he was going to take this possible for this job in what is going on in job, in the words of the old country song, the effort to succeed him. [Laughter] You I didn't know whether to kill myself or go can tell how good a person is by whether bowling. [Laughter] I had become almost others want to do what he once did or she emotionally dependent upon him being in once did. We had a mayor in my home town the CongressÐ[laughter]Ðsupporting me once spend his entire term offering to fix when I needed it, reprimanding me when parking tickets in nongrammatical ways. And I needed it, whether I knew it or not. when he left office, it took us months to find [Laughter] I never have much time for tele- anyone to run. [Laughter] vision, but whenever I channel-surfed and When he announced he was leaving, 32 saw him doing his talk show on television, Laughter I always stopped and marveled at how well people showed up. [ ] It's almost im- he related to all those different kinds of peo- possible to sort out the election process. It's ple. He is a uniquely gifted man, with a per- a great tribute to the standard of public serv- sonal history that shimmers with the promise ice set by this Congressman. I am laughing of America and the possibility of personal re- about it; I am dead serious: 28 Democrats newal and the virtue of never giving up on and four Republicans showed up because yourself or your family or your common pos- they know it means something to represent sibility. the American people in the United States I can't help but say that in the continuing Congress because of the way he represented struggle we have to rescue our young people. the people of his district. When you see these young people, you know So I say to you, my fellow Americans, as there is nothing that they cannot do. And someone who is in the personal debt of the when you see so many others we are losing, NAACP, and as your President, we need the when the crime rate goes down in America, NAACP. I thank every person here who the juvenile violence rate goes up, when drug worked with Myrlie to bring it back together use goes down in America and drug use to this point, to shed the old baggage and among juveniles goes up, you ask yourself, to go forward with a clear mind and a free there's got to be something wrong here when heart. And I thank my good friend Congress- not all of our childrenÐdon't do this and man Mfume for his willingness to lay down don't have these opportunities and don't his political career for even higher public shimmer with their own energy and integrity service. and possibility. That's what Kweisi Mfume It is a wise choice. It will give us a better will help to bring to America through the future. And we are all here to celebrate as NAACP. I ask the Chief Judge of the United States Because he is a Congressman from Mary- Court of Appeals, Judge Harry Edwards, to land and we have so many of his colleagues come forward and administer the oath to the here, I think we must also say that a lot of new president and CEO of the NAACP.