Commencement Speech, University of California San Diego
President Clinton introduced the initiative during his commencement speech to the graduating class of the university. In the speech, he discussed his own experience growing up in the segregated south. The audience included several figures from the Civil Rights movement, including Congresspersons John Lewis, Maxine Waters, Jim Clyburn, Juanita Millender-McDonald, Patsy Mink, and Robert Filner. The Advisory Board was introduced to the audience as well.
President Clinton identified three imperatives for the initiative to focus: expanding opportunity, demanding responsibility, and creating one American community based on respect and shared values.
- "I want this panel to help educate Americans about the facts surrounding issues of race, to promote a dialogue in every community of the land to confront and work through these issues, to recruit and encourage leadership at all levels to help breach racial divides, and to find, develop and recommend how to implement concrete solutions to our problems -- solutions that will involve all of us in government, business, communities, and as individual citizens."
Read more about this topic: One America Initiative
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