At the 1948
Democratic National Convention,
Hubert Humphrey (1911 –
1978), the popular mayor of
Minneapolis and a Convention
delegate, who had worked
tirelessly to fight
discrimination against blacks and
other minorities in Minnesota,
found himself discouraged by his
party’s weak support for
civil rights:
My
friends, to those who say that we
are rushing this issue of civil
rights, I say to them we are 172
years late! To those who say that
this civil-rights program is an
infringement on states’
rights, I say this: The time has
arrived in America for the
Democratic Party to get out of
the shadow of states' rights and
to walk forthrightly into the
bright sunshine of human
rights!
His passionate
speech helped get President
Truman’s civil rights
proposals included into the party
platform, and propelled him
toward his first term as a United
States Senator.
Nicknamed The Happy
Warrior for his energy, wit and
affable demeanor, Humphrey
continued to his commitment to
social justice and human rights
as a Senator.
Compassion
is not weakness, and concern for
the unfortunate is not
socialism.
During his later
term as Vice President, however,
Humphrey’s loyalty to the
policies of Lyndon Johnson
alienated many of his earlier
followers, who had hoped he would
have had more of an impact in the
administration, particularly as
it related to the Vietnam
War.
Liberalism,
above all, means emancipation -
emancipation from one's fears,
his inadequacies,
from prejudice, from
discrimination, from
poverty.
In his run for the
presidency during the tumultuous
1968 campaign season, Humphrey
was unable to shake his
association with the pro-war
Johnson, or ignite a demoralized
liberal base grieving the recent
losses of Robert Kennedy and
Martin Luther King, Jr., and lost
the election to Richard
Nixon.
It
was once said that the moral test
of government is how that
government treats those who are
in the dawn of life, the
children; those who are in the
twilight of life, the elderly;
and those who are in the shadows
of life, the sick, the needy and
the handicapped.
Humphrey returned
to Minnesota and, in 1971, the
Senate, where he served until his
death in 1978.
Leadership
in today's world requires far
more than a large stock of
gunboats and a hard fist at the
conference table.
