The Percy Program

It is a fight to level the playing field to be able to compete for jobs and careers on the basis of skills and make available apprentice training to all. In 1973 Al Percy launched a class action lawsuit to give workers like him a chance to better their lot in life. It would also ensure the availability of skilled workers to build the infrastructure of the future.

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Percy Action

THE APPRENTICE that

THE APPRENTICE that never was I. PRELUDE Lincoln The relief sought from you, the reader, was first identified in the last speech Lincoln ever made, three days before Lincoln’s assassination. It was two days after the surrender of Robert E. Lee's army to Grant, ending the Civil War, to a crowd gathered outside the White House calling for President Lincoln, reporter Noah Brooks wrote, "Outside was a vast sea of faces, illuminated by the lights that burned in the festal array of the White House, and stretching far out into the misty darkness. It was a silent, intent, and perhaps surprised, multitude." "Within stood the tall, gaunt figure of the President, deeply thoughtful, intent upon the elucidation of the generous policy which should be pursued toward the South. That this was not the sort of speech which the multitude had expected is tolerably certain." Lincoln stood at the window over the building's main north door while Brooks held a light so Lincoln could read his speech. The Lincoln speech of April 11, 1865: “We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart . . . . . . . This plan was, in advance, submitted to the then Cabinet, and distinctly approved by every member of it. One of them suggested that I should then, and in that connection, apply the Emancipation Proclamation to the theretofore excepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana; that I should drop the suggestion about apprenticeship for freedpeople, and that I should omit the protest against my own power, in regard to the admission of members to Congress; but even he approved every part and parcel of the plan which has since been employed or touched by the action of Louisiana. The new constitution of Louisiana, declaring emancipation for the whole State, practically applies the Proclamation to the part previously excepted. It does not adopt apprenticeship for freed-people . . . . . . . Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote in favor of the proposed amendment to the national Constitution. . . . . . . . ” (emphasis added) i

The dilemma Lincoln was facing was how to gradually eliminate inequality. Lincoln envisioned using apprenticeship as the Union was reconstructed. Lincoln recognized that freedom without the opportunity to earn a living would be disastrous and only lead to and did lead to misery. Lincoln’s proposal occurred when Louisiana wanted to return to the Union. Lincoln identified apprenticeship for the freed-people as the tool to repair and bring the freed people into the mainstream of economic opportunity. Lincoln recognized that freed persons had to be provided skills as workers through apprenticeship to assimilate them into a working, earning and thriving class, without which there would be immense suffering and damages to the freed class. The 10 minute speech of only 1819 words introducing the complex topic of reconstruction, twice identified apprenticeship for freed-people as a means to survive and prosper, as it was viewed through the prism of the State of Louisiana. Incensed John Wilkes Booth, a member of the audience that evening on April 11, 1865, vowed, Brooks wrote "That is the last speech he will make." An acknowledged white supremacist according to Brooks, Booth made good on his threat. The assassination of Lincoln by Booth 3 days after this speech, frustrated the proposed reconstruction opportunities: “apprenticeship for freed-people”, a vision not spoken of again since April 11, 1865. Instead, Lincoln’s nightmare of disaster and misery came true with lynchings, massacres, and the anarchy of Reconstruction[ 1 ] followed by the Jim Crow laws of separation and discrimination[ 2 ]. Out of this cauldron of a beginning the 14th amendment grew to ensure equal opportunity to freedpeople, enter Roscoe Conkling. Grant and Conkling Roscoe Conkling, US Congressman, and later US Senator from Utica New York, at a time when both US Senators from New York State were from Utica New York, the other Senator being Francis Kernan, Grant and [ 1 ] Bibliography Manuscript research reference [ 2 ] Bibliography Manuscript research reference ii

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