New Tools for Social Progress
An article by U.S. Senator Walter F. Mondale from the September 1967 issue of The Progressive.
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Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale at the Democratic National Convention in New York City on July 15, 1976.
Early this year, the National Committee Against Segregation in Housing charged that for the past three decades, good intentions notwithstanding, various Federal programs had fostered racial segregation and consequently trapped Negroes in slum ghettos.Â
We know we are building new buildings, but what are we doing to
people?
Their specific criticisms attacked a broad range of programs and policies, among them urban renewal, transportation, and public housing. Some of the programs the Committee cited sought to improve American society generally; others, such as public housing, aimed at improving the condition of the poor. Of urban renewal, the Committee charged that the programs âhave consistently violated the rights of Negro Americans and other minorities by forcing their continuous upheaval and relocation in racially segregated areas to accommodate local community prejudices.âÂ