Hubert Humphrey on Tolerance

Hubert Humphrey was a giant in Minnesota and National politics as I was growing up.  I met him the first time when I was a child and he came through Green Isle, campaigning for reelection to the US Senate after having been eliminated from contention for the Democratic nomination for President in 1960.  I met him again in about 1974, when he stopped to greet some invited guests at a friend’s home in Winthrop. 

As Mayor of Minneapolis, United States Senator and Vice President, Humphrey was an outspoken advocate for human rights.  Here is an example:

"On one occasion, a traffic policeman in handing out a ticket called the violator a 'dirty Jew.' I suspended him for fifteen days without pay. I tried with far less success to stop the verbal abuse of Negroes." [1]

Brother[2] Hubert Humphrey started his political career as Mayor of Minneapolis.  I presume that was his position when he took the action he talks about above. 

Humphrey had a well-deserved reputation for long speeches.  I attended a dinner where Humphrey was the featured speaker and heard him say that Muriel (his wife) once told him, “Hubert, you know that in order for a speech to be immortal it does not need to be eternal.”

But Brother Humphrey also had a well-deserved reputation for taking action and speaking out on important issues, no matter what the personal consequences may be.  It was Humphrey’s speech at the 1948 Democratic National Convention that caused the Dixiecrat delegates to walk out, when he advocated for stronger 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. People -- human beings -- this is the issue of the 20th century. People of all kinds -- all sorts of people -- and these people are looking to America for leadership, and they’re looking to America for precept and example.[3]

Actions speak louder than words.  Brother Humphrey had plenty of both.  Will we have the moral courage to stand up for the rights of less-privileged when we have the opportunity?

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[1] The Education of a Public Man: My Life and Politics, 1976, p. 99

[2] As a fellow member of the Masonic fraternity, I am able to call the Senator “Brother”

[3] It is worth reading the entire speech, found here:   http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/huberthumphey1948dnc.html