Remarks in a Meeting With the President’s Advisory Board on Race,
September 18, 1998

[Chairman John Hope Franklin and other members of the advisory board made opening remarks. Former Governor of Minnesota and board member William F. Winter reminded the President of a photograph he was shown of Gov. Winter’s grandson’s elementary school class in Oxford, Mississippi, a year ago, which he had enlarged.]

The President. What a wonderful poster!

[Gov. Winter then read a letter to the President from one student and then presented the President a book of letters from the entire class.]

The President. Isn’t that great? Maybe I ought to read that to people.

Gov. Winter. And they want you to come visit their class. [Laughter]

The President. This is your grandson’s class?

Gov. Winter. That’s my grandson’s class. That’s right.

Chairman Franklin. We went to the classroom.

Gov. Winter. We had a great day down there.

Chairman Franklin. We did, indeed.

Board Member Linda Chavez-Thompson. And I have to follow that? [Laughter] I didn’t bring a book.

The President. This is beautiful, too. Nice.

[Ms. Chavez-Thompson and Board Members Thomas H. Kean and Angela E. Oh made brief remarks.]

Chairman Franklin. There’s one thing Angela didn’t do; she didn’t tell you that she’s going to write a book saying, "How Being A Member Of The Advisory Board Changed My Life." [Laughter]

The President. It’s here on the tape, the first chapter. [Laughter]

[Board Member Robert Thomas made brief remarks and joked if the board does not do something "big, huge, tremendous, way beyond the norm" on education, it will "just be perfuming the pig."]

The President. We had a long discussion about where that came from. [Laughter] I thought I never heard it before you said it, but I like it. I’m going to use it shamelessly. [Laughter]

[Mr. Thomas continued his remarks, and then Board Member Suzan D. Johnson Cook spoke. In concluding her remarks, she asked the President to sign her son’s class picture and then presented the President a book entitled, "Too Blessed To Be Stressed."]

The President I accept that. That’s great.

Ms. Cook. And so we’re praying for you, and we thank you so much for flying on Air Force One and eating ribs with you. Thank you. [Laughter]

The President. You need to tell me how you want me to sign that, and I’ve got a special pen, and we’ll sign it, and I’ll bring it over there.

[Laura Harris, consultant to the advisory board on Native American issues, explained the diversity of her son’s ethnic background and joked that since she began her work with the board, her son and the family can no longer refer to their "Scot-Irish-Oklahoman" grandfather as a "redneck."]

The President. That’s a real advance. [Laughter]

[Ms. Harris closed by thanking the President for the government-to-government relationship between the Federal Government and tribal governments. Chairman Franklin concurred it was a great help to the board’s deliberations.]

The President. You know, let me just say—I’ll be very brief, because I know we’re supposed to go over to this other deal, and I think Linda’s got to go. But I just want to thank you for doing this and for being brave enough to do it.

I knew when we started that all of us would be subject to some criticism because, number one, we couldn’t solve every problem in America overnight related to race; number two, you could almost relate every problem in America to race; and number three, in a cynical and weary world, it’s easy to devalue the importance of people going in good faith to raise the consciousness and quicken the conscience and kind of lift the spirits of other people and encourage them to do the right thing, and then to figure out—it is a complex thing, figuring out how much of this is policy, how much of this is dialog, how much of this is community, how much of this is almost spiritual.

I think you have really made a heroic effort to come to grips with all of these elements and to make this a very important milestone on America’s journey here, and I hope you’ll always be proud of it. I really think—you know, it was a big risk. I knew a lot of people would say, "Well, we didn’t do this; we didn’t do that; we didn’t do the other thing;" or "we said this, and it was wrong." And probably some of that criticism is valid. But when you take it all and shake it up, I think there is no question that what we did at this moment, in the absence of a searing crisis, facing a future of incredible kaleidoscopic diversity, was a very good thing for our country. And I do think that we have to keep it going, and I will take all these recommendations seriously.

I hope you all meant what you said today. I hope it was a great gift for you, because for your country it was a great gift.

Chairman Franklin. We are deeply grateful to you, Mr. President.

The President. Thank you. Well, I’ll see you over there. Except Linda, who has an excused absence.

Note: The President spoke at 2:20 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White House. Other participants in the meeting were Judith A. Winston, Executive Director, and Christopher Edley, consultant, President’s Advisory Board on Race. These remarks were not received in time for publication in the appropriate issue. A tape was not available for verification of the content of these remarks.