Statement by the President Concerning the White House Conference "To Fulfill These Rights."

LAST JUNE, in addressing the graduating class of Howard University, I announced that a White House Conference would be held this fall and with this theme: "To Fulfill These Rights." I described its object to be "to help the American Negro fulfill the rights which, after the long time of injustice, he is about to secure."

I am pleased to announce the Conference will be held in Washington on November 17 and 18. To provide leadership and guidance for those who participate in the Conference, I have asked a most distinguished American, Mr. A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and a vice president of the AFLCIO, to serve as honorary chairman. Working with him as cochairmen of the Conference will be Mr. Morris Abram of Atlanta and New York City, and Mr. William Coleman of Philadelphia. Both Mr. Abram and Mr. Coleman have earned widespread respect as men of the law and as men of deep personal commitment to the cause of civil liberty.

We are entering a new and far more difficult phase of our national effort to ensure that all Americans participate fully in the benefits and responsibilities of this most prosperous of nations.

It is, therefore, especially fortunate that we have men with such impressive credentials willing to devote their time, energy, resourcefulness, and creativity to the Nation's most difficult domestic problem.

Because of the gravity, scope, and importance of this issue, it is apparent that it cannot be considered in an effective way without more extensive preparations. The November Conference will draw together men and women with long experience in the fields of housing, employment, education, social welfare, and the like. They will point the way toward new efforts to include the Negro American more fully in our society. In the spring of next year, a larger conference of concerned Americans will convene in Washington to consider the conclusions and recommendations of the November meeting.

We look forward to these deliberations with high hope and confidence--hope that through the vision of dedicated men and women in both private and public life, we may find the new avenues of opportunity for Negro Americans--confidence that those for whom we labor will one day walk down those avenues toward full participation in a Great Society.