President Johnson: : And by the way, I made . . . You might misunderstand it, but I took your statement you made the other day and one or two others made about we, pass laws to help people and we got to all obey the law and we can't violate it either as a Klansman or either with a Molotov cocktail. That we ought to obey the law... I made that to the equal employment people today and made it pretty strong.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : Mmmhmm.
President Johnson: : But I wound up, I said what we've got to do is take the, find a cure and go in and correct these conditions where the housing and the ghettos and the rats are eating the children and the schools and the hunger and the unemployment and so forth.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : Yes.
President Johnson: : And they're all God's children, and we better get at it.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : Yes. Yes.
President Johnson: : But I want you to know that I'd said that. Pardon me for interrupting, go ahead.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : That's all right. But in, in my meeting with Police Chief William Parker and Mr. Yorty, Mayor Yorty, I just felt that they're absolutely insensitive to the problems and to the needs to really cure the situation. Now, Mr. Parker is a very rude man. We couldn't get anywhere with him. But I just don't see a willingness even on the part of the mayor to grant just a few concessions to make, to bring about a new sense of hope and unclear. Now what is frightening about it is that you hear all of these tones of violence and people out there in the Watts area unclear the National Guard unclear they're going back. The minute that happens there will be retaliation from the white people this time. Last time there was not, which was wonderful. But, people have bought up guns and, of course, Chief Parker went on on the television the other day unclear they had a right unclear to hold a gun.So that I'm fearful that if something isn't done to give a new sense of hope to the people in that area and they are poverty-stricken that a full- scale race war can develop here, and I'm concerned about it naturally because I know that violence and a riot like we had the other day doesn't help unclear anything.
President Johnson: : That's right, now what, what should we do about it? What's your recommendation?
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : Well, the problem is, I think the poverty, if they could get in the next few days this poverty program going in Los Angeles, I believe it would help a great deal.
President Johnson: : I'll get him over here in the morning. We'll get at it. Where are you going to be?
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : I'll be in Atlanta in the morning.
President Johnson: : All right, we'll call you back. Lee will call you, or I'll call you if I have time, and we'll explore this. Is that the net of what you're recommending?
King: That's right.
President Johnson: : All right.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : I think this would be . . . greatly. This would help greatly.
President Johnson: : All right, now you better get your thinking cap on on this conference because we're going to have to rush it. We don't want to rush it too much, we want to have plenty of preliminary work on the panels and things.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : Uh-huh.
President Johnson: : But you better, you can see here that my Howard University speech wasn't any too early.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : That's right, that's right. You said it right there. That's right. Well, we've-- I've been doing some thinking on that--
President Johnson: : Well, you refer to that some. In your statement, you just point out that we've seen this national thing, that you've been in here. We were talking about it last week. Wasn't it last week you were here?
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : That's right.
President Johnson: : And we were talking about Howard University last month.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : That's right.
President Johnson: : And say that. Unclear comment by King. And just say that the clock is ticking, that the, the hands are moving and we just-- the good Lord is going to allow some time and He's trying to give us some warnings. But the country's got to stand up and support what I'm doing. And I can't have these poverty things hitting me 43 to 43.
King: Yeah, that's right.
President Johnson: : 44 to 42. That's just too close for the United States Senate.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : That's right.
President Johnson: : And I've been seeing you on television every night. You make a reasonable and fair, just thing, but I think you ought to say that the President recognized this thing . . . months ago and has talked to you about it and all the leaders. He had all the leaders in here and he talked to them at Howard University and the speech is available and they ought to read it and that we're going to have a meeting, nationwide meeting and try to form it, but we can't wait. We've got to have some of these housing programs, and we've got to get rid of these ghettos, and we've got to get these children out from where the rats eat on them at night, and we've got to get them some jobs. I had a youth job-- we've got two million unemployed. I've got 500,000 of them as a goal, and I set up the Vice President and Secretary of Commerce John T. Conner and we got all the business men to give them jobs. And we reached our goal of 500 so we increased it to 750. We reached that yesterday, and now we reached 800 yesterday. So today I increased it to a million, so that'll be a million of two million, but I told the crowd today we're just 50 percent. Well, when you bat 50 percent, that's not very good.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : That's right. That's right.
President Johnson: : We . . . so there's a million still that got no place to go when they get up, these youngsters.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : Yes. That's right. Well, that's right.
President Johnson: : But you put a little of that stuff in your thing.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : I unclear.
President Johnson: : Refer to that Howard University speech. Nobody ever publicized that.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : Unclear almost every speech I've made because I think it's the best statement and analysis of the problems I've seen anywhere, certainly no President has ever said it like that before.
President Johnson: : Well, we're ahead of it and we've got to keep ahead of it, and we're not now unless we do. But they never publicized it any and you have a . . . you're on television, and you ought to make them. Hell, have . . . tell them to read it, write, and get it and let's get busy and let's get into this housing. Let's get into this unemployment. Let's get into this health. Let's get into this social security situation. Let's get into this education. Let's get into . . . I said this morning, I've spent the biggest part of my life the last four years on civil rights bills, but it doesn't, all of it comes to naught if you have a situation like war in the world or a situation in Los Angeles.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : Yes.
President Johnson: : And I said a man's got no more right to destroy property with a Molotov cocktail in Los Angeles than the Ku Klux Klan has to go out and destroy a life. And what we've got to do is all obey the law, but there's no use giving lectures on the law as long as you've got rats eating on peoples' children and unemployed and no roof over their head and no job to go to and maybe with a dope needle in one side and the cancer in the other.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : Yeah, that's it.
President Johnson: : Because they don't have very good judgment.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : Yeah.
President Johnson: : People don't that got that kind of condition.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : That's right, and they--
President Johnson: : And we're not doing enough to relieve it, and we're not doing it quick enough.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : Yes.
President Johnson: : And yet I'm having hell up here with this Congress.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : Yes.
President Johnson: : I'm supposed to . . .
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : I didn't know the vote was that close.
President Johnson: : Oh, I had a tie vote, 43 to 43.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: : Is that so?
President Johnson: : And the amendment was to cut me 900 million dollars . . .