TRANSCRIPT: WHITE HOUSE BRIEFING ON KING DAY ACTIVITIES
USIA
USIS Washington File
16 January 1998
TRANSCRIPT: WHITE HOUSE BRIEFING ON KING DAY ACTIVITIES
(The King holiday is a day of national service) (2730)
Washington -- High-ranking Clinton Administration officials will spend
the Martin Luther King holiday working at community projects in the
Washington area, the White House said January 16.
As Thurgood Marshall, Jr., the Assistant to the President for Cabinet
Affairs, noted for White House correspondents, "In 1994, the President
signed the King Holiday and Service Act to make the holiday a day of
service that brings people together, promotes racial cooperation, and
allows people to solve problems through citizen action."
On that occasion, Marshall recalled, President Clinton had said, "This
law helps us by linking the observance of Dr. King's birthday to a day
of national service. Nothing could better serve the legacy of Dr.
King. He was apathy's sworn enemy and action's tireless champion."
Indeed, Dr. King himself once said, "Everybody can be great because
anybody can serve."
Marshall, son of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice who, while still
a lawyer for the NAACP, argued the successful Brown v. Board of
Education case before the Supreme Court in 1954, told reporters that
on Monday, January 19, when the King national holiday is observed,
President Clinton, the First Lady and Vice President Gore, along with
a dozen or more Cabinet members and members of the President's
Advisory Board on Race and numerous other administration staff "will
join Americans across the country participating in events to
commemorate the King holiday and participate in service opportunities
around the country.
"The President, in particular," Marshall said, "will join Senator
(Harris) Wofford and 65 AmeriCorps members, as well as 300 community
volunteers, to repair and paint classrooms at Cardozo High School in
the Shaw neighborhood of Washington. White House staff will also be
participating in that effort.
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretary of Education Richard
Riley will be at the MCI Center to read to children associated with
local literacy programs in the D.C. Reads program, connected with the
D.C. public schools.
Vice President Gore will deliver remarks at the Ebenezer Baptist
Church in Atlanta along with the King family, and he will participate
in the service even at the King Center in connection with the group,
Do Something.
Six Cabinet members, Marshall said, will be participating in
service-oriented events in Washington. "Six others," he said, "will be
participating in events around the country."
A number of White House staff, including Frank Raines, Janet Yellin,
Gene Sperling and Maria Echaveste will be participating in
service-related events here in the District of Columbia, Marshall
said. "The events include the MCI Center reading program, the Cardozo
High School refurbishing, as well as the couple of kids, Martha's
Table events, helping the homeless in the D.C. area."
Following is the White House transcript:
(begin transcript)
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
January 16, 1998
PRESS BRIEFING BY
THURGOOD MARSHALL, JR., ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR CABINET AFFAIRS
AND
SENATOR HARRIS WOFFORD, THE CEO OF THE CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL
SERVICE
The Briefing Room
BARRY TOIV: Good afternoon. Monday, to celebrate Martin Luther King
Day, the President, the Vice President, the First Lady and many other
members of the administration will have kind of a day on instead of a
day off, and perform service to communities around the country,
particularly here in the District. The White House staff, as well,
will participate.
Here to brief on those activities are Thurgood Marshall, Jr.,
Assistant to the President for Cabinet Affairs, and Senator Harris
Wofford, who is CEO of the Corporation for National Service, which is
the lead agency for these activities.
As you may know, back in 1994 Congress passed legislation to make this
a day of service, and so here they are.
MARSHALL: Thank you, Barry. Good afternoon. In 1994, the President
signed the King Holiday and Service Act to make the holiday a day of
service that brings people together, promotes racial cooperation, and
allows people to solve problems through citizen action.
On that occasion, the President said, "This law helps us by linking
the observance of Dr. King's birthday to a day of national service.
Nothing could better serve the legacy of Dr. King. He was apathy's
sworn enemy and action's tireless champion." Indeed, Dr. King himself
once said, "Everybody can be great because anybody can serve."
As Barry mentioned on Monday, President Clinton, the First Lady and
Vice President Gore, along with a dozen or more Cabinet members and
members of the President's Advisory Board on Race and numerous other
administration staff will join Americans across the country
participating in events to commemorate the King holiday and
participate in service opportunities around the country.
The President, in particular, will join Senator Wofford and 65
AmeriCorps members, as well as 300 community volunteers, to repair and
paint classrooms at Cardozo High School in the Shaw neighborhood of
Washington. White House staff will also be participating in that
effort.
Mrs. Clinton and Secretary Riley will be at the MCI Center to read to
children associated with local literacy programs in the D.C. Reads
program, connected with the D.C. public schools.
Vice President Gore will deliver remarks at the Ebenezer Baptist
Church in Atlanta along with the King family, and he will participate
in the service even at the King Center in connection with the group,
Do Something.
Six Cabinet members will be participating in service-oriented events
in Washington. Six others will be participating in events around the
country; I believe the list has been provided to you. If you have any
particular questions, our office in Cabinet Affairs at Extension 2572
can either provide that information or hook you up directly with the
contacts in those agencies.
A number of White House staff, including Frank Raines, Janet Yellin,
Gene Sperling and Maria Echaveste will be participating in
service-related events here in the District of Columbia. The events
include the MCI Center reading program, the Cardozo High School
refurbishing, as well as the couple of kids, Martha's Table events,
helping the homeless in the D.C. area.
As you all know, the Cabinet has been heavily involved in service
events throughout the first term and now in the second term. In
addition, we have worked with virtually monthly meetings with Cabinet
agency representatives to emphasize service events throughout the
year.
Secretary Glickman, for example, has embarked on a very ambitious food
recovery program, which links his agency with a number of other
government agencies. The Attorney General spends time in the D.C.
public schools mentoring students. Secretary Slater is working to
encourage some 100 million children by the year 2000 to explore
careers in technology programs linked to his transportation agenda.
There are a number of other activities that the agencies have been
involved in and we're happy to lay those out for you if that's
helpful. I just want to offer up any other guidance from our office.
Steve Silverman is here as well and can answer questions. He's been
involved in this, actually, since the '92 campaign.
Q: What time is the Cardozo event?
MARSHALL: Actually, I'm not sure of the actual time. I'm sorry. Eleven
o'clock a.m.
Q: Will the First Lady be with him at that, or does she have a
separate service project?
MARSHALL: She's going to the MCI Center.
Q: So the President will actually paint and so forth?
MARSHALL: I'm sorry.
Q: Just -- and your family's history on civil rights, yesterday there
seemed to be a very light celebration of Dr. King's birth. Are you
expecting more of a resurgence of years past when they were looking
for a King holiday, for that type of atmosphere Monday, or do you
think people have just kind of lost a little bit of the fervor?
MARSHALL: Well, actually I hope so, and I would be happy to run
through after the briefing with you the extensive list of activities
that our Cabinet folks participated in yesterday to commemorate the
King birthday, the actual anniversary of the birthday. I should
actually turn this over to Senator Wofford at this point who is the
CEO of the Corporation for National Service.
Senator.
SENATOR WOFFORD: Goody, you can stand by me, but thank you. Good
afternoon. The fact that's clear to all of us who knew Martin Luther
King and worked with him is that he would not want this holiday to be
a day off, a day of recreation and rest, he would want it to be a day
of action and service.
We know that in our bones that he would not like the holiday that we
fought so hard to get established across the country and nationally to
be anything less than what he represented, which was turning the
greatest words -- among the greatest words in our history into deeds.
And that's what the purpose of making this a day of action and service
is.
Can you hear me, or may I just finish a couple of remarks first?
Sorry. When John Lewis, a true hero of the civil rights movement and
close colleague of Dr. King teamed up with me and others of us to
present this idea to the Congress, we found that almost all of our
colleagues on both sides of the aisle viewed it as a self-evident
proposition that we should make this a day of service and not just one
day, but a day that would be a jump start and a kickoff for sustained
service through the year.
That idea has caught fire. One could sense it was going to in the Rose
Garden when the President signed it and the King Family was there and
great members of the civil rights movement were there to celebrate it,
and it has grown every year since. And this is going to be, by far,
the largest year of projects. Hundreds of them that we know of through
our family of national service. That means there are thousands that we
don't know of.
With the President's example and his commitment and the Cabinet's and
the events the King Family is organizing in Atlanta, there's going to
be a great new shove to this idea. Our family of national service,
AmeriCorps members, 40,000 strong now, are in the front lines of this.
Our senior service corps of half a million seniors are actively
engaged across the country. More than half a million Learn and Serve
students have been asked by their teachers and by us to engage in acts
on this day. The Do Something organization of Andrew Shue has an
inventive program on the Web site in which on-line young people
register acts of kindness and justice. And so far the count is that
there are some 160,000 acts of kindness and justice in the 10 days
before the holiday that have been registered on-line -- 114,000 acts
so far in 1,600 cities; 1,600 acts per hour; 12,000 teachers around
the country have engaged their students. And that is just one example.
So I think we can say that on behalf of our partners in this, the
United Way of America, the Points of Light Foundation, King Center in
Atlanta, the King family, and Do Something, that we are on our way to
making this holiday what Martin Luther King would have wanted. But we
know that 30 years after his death we have a long, long way still to
go. And Monday, Americans can do their part.
Coretta King I think put it well. Coretta Scott King said this: The
best birthday gift my husband could receive is if people of all racial
and ethnic backgrounds celebrate the holiday by performing individual
acts of kindness through service to others.
Goody and I and others will be happy to now pursue your questions.
Thanks for giving me the extra 10 minutes.
Q: What you're saying in essence, and if you could just come out and
say it if you could, is the King holiday just basically being observed
as a day off pretty much for the last few years?
SENATOR WOFFORD: No, I was organizer of the Martin Luther King
Association in Philadelphia, and we've had major celebrations on that
day. It's been a day for the majority of American people a day off.
The majority, overwhelming number of American students it's just been
a day off. That's why I think it is so significant that the Federation
of Teachers, the teachers of Philadelphia have joined with the school
district of Philadelphia to say we want to ask all of our students to
think about what kind of acts ought to be done on this day. Instead of
making it just a day off, let's together make it a day of action.
So I don't want to discount the commemorations all over this country,
the celebrations of words. But Martin Luther King would say you've got
to go beyond the words. Beginning is the word, but the word must be
made flesh, must be turned into deeds. With the dialogue which comes
first you've got to also take action. So this is fulfilling the
promise of the King holiday, not denying the good things that were
done before.
Q: Mr. Marshall, could you tell us just if you accept as sort of the
essence of Dr. King's dream that his children would live in a country
where they would be judged not by the color of their skin, but the
content of their character -- where is the country right now with
respect -- is that dream realized? And what is the message behind
sending Vice President Gore to Atlanta to commemorate this day?
MARSHALL: Well, it's obviously a dream to which we all continue to
aspire. The Vice President's message will be in large measure a
tribute to Dr. King, is my understanding, and a look back on his
teachings and where we are today. So I think you will hear in his
speech an answer to that question and you will hear that from a number
of other folks from the administration who will be out speaking on
Monday.
SENATOR WOFFORD: Could I add a word in terms of the summit's
commitment of Presidents and thousands of people in Philadelphia to
fulfill America's promise and concentrate on the five fundamentals
that children and youth need to realize the American Dream, which one
of Martin Luther King's last words were the terrible urgency of now to
see that every one of God's children's children fulfills America's
promise.
When Dr. King was killed and Robert Kennedy was killed, those needs of
children and youth were there before us in this country. And we
haven't done enough in those 30 years. And we've been in these last
years on a number of fronts related to children and youth, moving up
to action. And the summit in Philadelphia summoned us to see that
every one of God's children achieves the five fundamentals or whatever
you want to make as your list that will enable young people to succeed
in this country. And that summit commitment is very much involved in
the projects going on all over this country. And to use this day as a
jump-start to organize the mentors, the coaches, the tutors, the
after-school programs that Vice President Gore spoke about the other
day in the child care program -- the child care, the access to health
for children, the effective education, the America Reads, the literacy
of all children and all young people being asked to serve, not just
being served -- those are the goals of the summit. And this King day
is another of many steps to give momentum to what I myself call civil
rights 2.
Q: Do all the states now participate in the holiday or have some -- I
mean, do some still not?
SENATOR WOFFORD: I think there are a couple of states that have -- one
state still has not made it a holiday. We know -- of our own family of
national service, we know projects in 47 states, Puerto Rico and the
Virgin Islands. I'm sure every state is participating in the King's --
in the action of service on King's holiday.
THE PRESS: Thank you.
(end transcript)