President Johnson Urges All Americans to Observe ‘brotherhood Week’

President Johnson today issued a call to all Americans to join in the observance of the 1967 National Brotherhood Week sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Troy V. Post, chairman of Braniff International Airways has been named chairman of this year’s Brotherhood Week.

“During Brotherhood Week 1967,” President Johnson stated in the call issued from the White House,” each American has a splendid opportunity to display the spirit of unity which had made this a mighty nation. It is a time in which we can exhibit to the world our unrelenting desire to eliminate from our society any vestige of injustice.

“Brotherhood simply means giving to others the rights, respect and dignity they deserve. It is a concept that was woven into the very fabric of our Constitution and Bill of Rights. In recent years, civil rights legislation has sought even more explicitly to guarantee equality for all Americans regardless of race, color or creed.

“Unfortunately, the gap between principle and practice still remains. It is our task — and our responsibility — to make certain that the gap is closed. I call upon each of our citizens to join the National Conference of Christians and Jews in the observance of Brotherhood Week and to make real our pledge of “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

In accepting the post of National Brotherhood Week chairman, Mr. Post called on all communities throughout the country to participate in the 1967 Brotherhood Week observance and to begin planning now for local programs that will express the brotherhood ideal. Brotherhood Week, always observed during the week of Washington’s birthday, will be held February 19th through February 26th this year.

Brotherhood Week is now in its 34th year. The annual observance of Brotherhood Week was first suggested in 1933 by Msgr. Hugh McMenamin, a Catholic priest from Denver, who proposed that NCCJ organize a special period when all Americans might focus their attention on how to live together in good will and mutual understanding.

The observance has now become a national institution termed by Vice-President Humphrey as “as American as the 4th of July;” it is celebrated by almost all schools and colleges in the U.S. and by most major civic organizations, youth groups, women’s clubs and human relations and educational agencies in all parts of the country. President Johnson, as have all U.S. Presidents beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt, serves as honorary chairman of Brotherhood Week.