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Sen. Ribicoff Praised for Courage in Assailing Northern Segregation Policies

February 12, 1970
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Rabbi Maurice M. Eisendrath, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, today praised Sen. Abraham A. Ribicoff for his “courageous statement” Monday in the Senate charging the north with “monumental hypocrisy in its treatment of the black man.”

In a telegram to the Connecticut senator, Rabbi Eisendrath stated: “You have earned the admiration and thanks of all fair-minded Americans for your moral and forthright speech on Monday before the Senate of the United States. We who deplore the acts and attitudes of southern white supremacists also share your repugnance of the hypocrisy of northern self-styled liberals, who, from the protected confines of their own lily-white enclaves, offer only useless lip service to the long-suffering black community.” In his speech to the Senate. Mr. Ribicoff called for integration of northern suburbs and schools and said the north is plagued by “dual systems of education” and the “dual society that exists in every metropolitan area – the black society of the central city and the white society of the suburbs.” His speech was in response to a statement by Mississippi Senator John Stennis that if segregation is wrong in the public schools of the south it is wrong in the public schools of all other states.

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