Jack Kemp Quotes

You can't say the Negro left the Republican Party; the Negro feels he was evicted from the Republican Party.

We used to wage war on poverty—not poor people.

Our inner cities are a disaster. You get shot walking to the store. They have no education. They have no jobs. I will do more for African-Americans and Latinos than Hillary Clinton can ever do in 10 lifetimes.

If the Democrats have their way, African Americans will continue to feel oppressed, despised and handicapped into the indefinite future. All progress will be downplayed and every setback amplified. In this way, Democrats can continue to rely on lopsided black support at the polls.

You must not embark on programs to curb economic growth without placing a priority on maintaining income, so that the poorest people won’t simply be further depressed in their condition but will have a share, and be able to live decently.

Black people are taken for granted by the Democratic Party and not even sought after by the Republican Party.

A riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.

The war on poverty had not been undertaken at the request of the poor.

Problems of persistent poverty cannot be addressed unless they are acknowledged.

Giving away food only encourages the poor not to starve. Increase productivity, not employment. Insure profits before we insure people Don’t be haters! We’re job creators. Bailout banks, not these losers (people evicted by banks foreclosing on their mortgages).

For black people the war [WWII] provided an opportunity to accelerate their demands for equality…. Black Americans highlighted the distance between this ideal of America and the reality of ongoing racial inequality, often through the black press and civil rights organizations

We’ve convinced ourselves that poverty is a tolerable thing. The basic problem is the sense of resignation about poverty in our society.

I can do an hour-long speech about Democrats taking African Americans for granted, and I'd have a line behind me of very prominent African-Americans who would say, 'Amen.'

The Negro was freed and turned loose as a penniless, landless, naked, ignorant laborer. Ninety-nine per cent were field hands and servants of the lowest class.

For too long, I think the African-American community has been taken for granted by one party and completely ignored by the other. It is not acceptable. It's not good for the parties, for the country, or for the community.

We had particular policies in this country that resulted in the larger share of poverty that we have in African-American communities.

King had come to Memphis to lend his moral authority to the struggle of striking municipal sanitation workers who were overwhelmingly African-American. They earned poverty wages, endured degrading working conditions, and faced brutal beatings when they tried to organize.

I have repeated ad nauseam my party's issues, which range from improving the lot of the poor to women's issues.

Irrespective of economic theories, we will take decisions in the larger interest of the poor people.

I think that the problem of the American negro goes beyond the principle of any organization whether it's a religious, political, or otherwise.

To those African-Americans suffering in our country, I say, what do you have to lose? Vote for Trump, I'm going to fix it.

I'm asking for the vote of every single African-American citizen. You're living in poverty. Your schools are no good. You have no jobs.

The Republican Party, in many ways, grew up as a reaction to that [ segregation], and a lot of people have misunderstood that.

I would like to talk about some of the things that happened that made me know that there was something wrong in the south from a child.

As an African American child growing up in the segregated South, I was told, one way or another, almost every day of my life, that I wasn't as good as a white child.