The Frank Church Institute’s Statement on Justice and Equality

THE FRANK CHURCH INSTITUTE UNDERSCORES ITS COMMITMENT TO THE PURSUIT OF JUSTICE AND EQUALITY FOR ALL AMERICANS AS ADVOCATED BY SENATOR CHURCH IN THE PASSAGE OF THE 1957 AND 1964 CIVIL RIGHTS ACTS.

“How long can a national administration stand idly by and permit one segment of our population to be treated as second class citizens? How many children must be murdered before the conscience of this Nation is aroused to do something about the prejudice and intolerance that exists against one’s fellow man? Children whose lives were snuffed out while attending church and whose only crime was that they were born with black skin…I realize that a solution to the civil rights issue will not be easy. Laws alone will not solve this problem. It is the shame of our Nation that some are denied the basic rights that should automatically accrue to every American at birth.  Rectification of this moral failing is sufficient to justify the corrective steps which the administration has taken and to argue for further action.”

Senator Frank Church

Letter to a Constituent—Fall 1963

Frank Church Collection

Boise State University