Education was the key to dealing with the problems of racism, US Congressman Mr Harold E. Ford said. "Improving the quality and delivery of education in the United States is the best way to get at the problems of racism, poverty and conflict," Mr Ford added. "Educating our people for the challenges of today's technology-based, skills-driven global economy is crucial not only to our social and economic stability but also to our national security."
He said that extending the provisions of the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence to minority groups was an example to Ireland, as it became a more diverse nation with the arrival of new immigrants.
Mr Ford said that over the past four decades, the United States had steered a course towards racial equality.
More African-Americans served in elected office at the federal, state and local levels than ever before.
In addition, since 1972, African-American unemployment had declined from 14.7 per cent to 9.45 per cent and among Hispanics it had declined to 6.9 per cent from 11.3 per cent.
"Minorities in the US, however, are still disproportionately affected by poverty, crime, lack of healthcare, a shortage of modern education infrastructure. So there is still work to be done to expand opportunity for everyone in the US," said Mr Ford.
He recalled that at the 1968 Democratic Party convention in Chicago a black woman had not been allowed sit on the convention floor, but 28 years later he himself had been accorded a front seat. "I could not help but think, as the emotions ran and the excitement rushed through all of us when the Vice-President prepared to speak, that things had changed dramatically," he added.
Mr Ford referred to the civil rights work of Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy and John F. Kennedy, adding that Robert Kennedy had once remarked that the rights of everybody were diminished when the rights of one person were threatened. He said that the United States had survived the depression, won two wars, developed a civil rights movement and opened up doors of opportunity for women. "But we still have great strides to make, as you have here in this great country," he added.
Mr Harold E. Ford (28) is an African-American who succeeded his father in the US Congress