Typed Speech Inscribed and Signed

5 August 1980 delivered to the Annual Convention of the National Urban League. 13 pages. After an opening joke about his Hollywood career, candidate Reagan likens his speech before the to the appearance of candidate John F. Kennedy "before a skeptical" audience of Protestant ministers in 1960 "who wanted to know whether his religious beliefs would in dome way affect his conduct in our nation's highest office." Like Kennedy 20 years earlier, Reagan hopes to reassure and perhaps even convert his skeptical listeners. For 'too many people, conservative has come to mean 'anti-poor, anti-black, anti-disadvantaged," But Reagan thinks his audience might " be surprised by our broad areas of agreement." He challenges "the idea that black Americans are some underclass of people, who must be treated apart from the mainstream of Americans because they don't have the capabilities the rest of us have. Nothing could be further from the truth. Black Americans don't lack capability. They lack opportunity. Given adequate opportunities, black Americans can be as successful as anyone else in this country." The speech highlights many of Reagan's familiar political arguments against what he called "big gov'mint" - the need for less regulation. lower taxes, more state and local discretion with federal funds. This speech shows off Reagan's extraordinary rhetorical skills which earned him the nickname "Great Communicator": the easy relaxed tone, the self-deprecating humor, the use of some exemplary citizen to illustrate his points, in this particular case, Daniel James, Jr., "a hero in two wars who wore four stars on his shoulders and fifty stars in his hears. He was a legend. He also happened to be black.".