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November 21st, 1967
On this day in 1967, President Johnson signed the Air Quality Act to strengthen federal powers to combat air pollution.
“Today we grow up to our responsibilities. This new Air Quality Act lets us face up to our problem as we have never faced up before.
“In the next 3 years, it will authorize more funds to combat air pollution—more funds in the next 3 years to combat air pollution—than we have spent on this subject in the entire Nation’s history of 180 years.
“It will give us scientific answers to our most baffling problem: how to get the sulphur out of our fuel—and how to keep it out of our air.
“It will give Secretary Gardner new power to stop pollution before it chokes our children and before it strangles our elderly—before it drives us into a hospital bed.
“It will help our States fight pollution in the only practical way—by regional airshed controls—by giving the Federal Government standby power to intervene if and when States rights do not always function efficiently.
“It will help our States to control the number one source of pollution—our automobiles.
“But for all that it will do, the Air Quality Act will never end pollution. It is a law—and not a magic wand to wave that will cleanse our skies. It is a law whose ultimate power and final effectiveness really rests out there with the people of this land—on our seeing the damnation that awaits us if the people do not act responsibly to avoid it and to curb it.
“Last January, in asking Congress to pass this legislation, I had this to say:
“‘This situation does not exist because it was inevitable, nor because it cannot be controlled. Air pollution is the inevitable consequence of neglect. It can be controlled when that neglect is no longer tolerated.
“‘It will be controlled when the people of America, through their elected representatives, demand the right to air that they and their children can breathe without fear.’
“So, let us then strengthen that demand from this moment on. Let us seize the new powers of this new law to end a long, dark night of neglect.”
November 21st, 1968
On this day in 1968, The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and The Howard University Choir performed at the White House in honor of the National Council on the Arts.