Constituent Correspondence to Representative Bob Dole: "Opinion Ballot: Debate on Civil Disobedience"

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house_153_001_001_tr.txt

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Extent (Dublin Core)

1 Page

File Name (Dublin Core)

house_153_001_001

Title (Dublin Core)

Constituent Correspondence to Representative Bob Dole: "Opinion Ballot: Debate on Civil Disobedience"

Description (Dublin Core)

A filled out opinion ballot sent to Representative Dole about civil obedience after the Watts Rebellion.

Date (Dublin Core)

1965-10-11

Date Created (Dublin Core)

1965-10-11

Congress (Dublin Core)

89th (1965-1967)

Policy Area (Curation)

Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues

Creator (Dublin Core)

Unknown

Record Type (Dublin Core)

questionnaires

Names (Dublin Core)

See all items with this valueDole, Robert J., 1923-2021

Rights (Dublin Core)

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

Language (Dublin Core)

eng

Collection Finding Aid (Dublin Core)

https://dolearchivecollections.ku.edu/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=5&q=

Physical Location (Dublin Core)

Collection 001, Box 153, Folder 1

Institution (Dublin Core)

Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

Archival Collection (Dublin Core)

Robert J. Dole House of Representatives Papers, 1960-1969

Full Text (Extract Text)

OPINION BALLOT

Subject: Should Congress take any further action to stop the killing, looting and burning in the streets of our Cities?

RECEIVED
OCT 11 1965
BOB DOLE

My dear Congressman:

Sen. Walter F. Mondale (D-Minn) says, "Mr. President, many of America's most influential columnists and reporters, and many Senators on this floor, have spoken of the urgent need for action to avert further catastrophes like the rioting last month in Los Angeles..." (Congressional Record Sept. 8, 1965 - page 22222)

DEBATE ON CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

Sen. Robert Kennedy (D-NY) says, "..... For it is clear that the riots of the last weekend were no isolated phenomenon, no unlucky chance. They began with a random argument between a drunken driver and a policeman; they could as easily have begun with a fight in a dance hall - as did the riots in Rochester; or with a policeman shooting a boy armed with a knife - as did the riots in New York; or with a fire engine knocking over a lamp post and killing a pedestrian - as did the riots in Chicago.'

'All these places - Harlem, Watts, South Side - are riots waiting to happen. To look at them is to know the reason why. First these are places of poverty. We know that the rate of Negro unemployment is twice the white rate - that the rate of Negro unemployment since World War II has been about 10%, far higher than the white rate has ever been outside the great depression. But do we realize also - can we comprehend - that in many census tracts in the core of our cities the unemployment rate may be 25 or 30 or even 40%? In the Watts area of Los Angeles, the rate was 34%. And in Watts - as in the other areas of this kind - unemployment of young Negroes may go as high as 75%.... And lack of work, means lack of money - and living in overcrowded, rat-infested housing - or even renting cars for a night to have a place to sleep, as many people do in the Watts area...... " (Congressional Record August 24, 1965 - page 20693)

George S. Schuyler, a prominent Negro newspaper columnist, writing in the Meredian, Miss. Star August 25, 1965 says, "The current crop of anti-white disturbances, like those in the past, is the inevitable consequence of the increasing competition between rival civil rights groups led by career agitators vying for the profits or organized pandemonium. Never have so many innocent people been betrayed by so few for so little.'

'There are as many different kinds of Negroes as there are white people, and most of them deplore the bad reputation they have been given by the excesses of the agitational and criminal elements of their so called race. They respect life and property. They own millions of homes, automobiles and modern utensils and do not cram the jails. Like their white counterparts, they are eager to live in peace. They have no illusions about the marching, mobbing, picketing, vandalizing Negro element. They know there is a lot of the law in the end of a policeman's nightstick, and they want it used.'

'Above all, these Negroes wish white people in authority would stop flattering and encouraging the sorceror's apprentices leading astray the mentally retarded and criminally bent black minority. Utilizing the traditional techniques of spontaneous disorder, well know to Communists, Nazis and other political perverts, the self-appointed leaders of the Negro revolution have for years recklessly incited young Negroes to mass action inside - and often outside - the urban Negro enclaves...... " (Congressional Record August 31, 1965 - page A 4918)

Here is my thinking: I sincerely believe there should be new laws with teeth that would prevent such rioting as occurred in Los Angeles. Liberty is no license for civil disobedience; nor do I think that there should be an easy way out for those that participate in rioting. It's high time that men in your position get behind an investigation as to who is actually at the bottom of these riots and then apply the severest action possible. I believe if these things continue we can look forward to seeing America rot from the inside out. Mr. George S. Schuyler expressed it pretty well. (Put Additional Comments on Back Side)

Name: (redacted)
(Please Print or Write Clearly)
Occupation: Insurance & Real Estate
Address: (redacted)
City: Kansas
State Kansas

This ballot furnished by the National "Write Your Congressman" Club, Inc.
P. O. Box 8433
Dallas 5, Texas