File:38. Speech by Honorable Sam M. Gibbons at Florida Dedication, July 3, 1963 Page 2 (05c1c2e8-39c8-4b17-9fc1-fbac7ae052e6).jpg

White paper with typed black text

Our disagreements must no longer be settled by armed conflict, as here a Century ago. Our racial conflicts must be removed from the streets and our differences resolved the American way in our Courts, our Legislative bodies, and the ballot box. If we should fail --- and we will if leadership passes to the extremists --- then man’s best chance for freedom and equality under law will have been eclipsed. Those who died here, and on other American battlefields, will have died in vain. The effects of the Battle we mark at this ceremony were largely confined to this country. But such is not the case today, for now, America’s racial conflict has immediate world-wide significance. We cannot hope to win men’s minds in our battle with Communism if America becomes a land in which freedom, equality and opportunity are only for the white man. Much progress has been made in human relations in this last one hundred years. Let us resolve to preserve our progress and to

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