‘Your Problems Are My Problems,’ He Tells Rights Group : Bush to Seek ‘Urban Renaissance’

President Bush, acknowledging that “in many respects, urban America offers a bleak picture,” promised a civil rights group Tuesday that he would work to make the next decade one of “urban renaissance.”

The President, who has received mixed grades from the civil rights community, assured the National Urban League: “Your problems are my problems.”

But his speech fell short of meeting the challenge offered by John E. Jacob, the organization’s president, who called on Bush “to present bold new initiatives that help America’s poor people and put us back on the path of racial progress.”

“Symbolism is important, but it’s not enough,” Jacob had said during Monday’s opening session of the Urban League conference. “For six months, there’s been strong rhetoric on civil rights but little else.”

Sees Test Ahead

On Tuesday, however, Jacob said that the opening months of a new Administration are a proper time for “rhetoric” and that the real test of Bush’s commitment will occur in coming months.

The President was given a cordial reception, interrupted by applause 10 times from a mostly black audience of several thousand people attending the league’s annual meeting.

Such audiences offer a special opportunity for Bush and Republicans in general, who want to enhance the party’s ability to attract minority voters who have traditionally supported Democrats.

At the same time, Bush has experienced some initial difficulty in winning support among civil rights leaders, a problem underscored by the ill-fated nomination of William Lucas to be assistant attorney general for civil rights.

Lucas Not Mentioned

Bush made no mention Tuesday of Lucas, whose nomination was blocked by the Senate Judiciary Committee after civil rights groups undertook an intense lobbying campaign against him, contending that he was unqualified for the government’s senior civil rights position. Lucas would have been the second black chief of the Justice Department’s civil rights division.

In his comments to the Urban League, Bush said that, despite a generally “bleak picture” facing the nation’s cities, the urban community is “simply too strong to succumb.”

“There are some who say, and you’ve heard it, that the state of urban America is hopeless. I say they’re wrong. We’ve got to see past the stories on the 6 o’clock news, past the statistics. We’ve got to see the potential for progress. We’ve got to see the face of hope in our inner cities,” the President said.

“The challenge for urban America is a challenge for all of America. It’s a challenge for my Administration,” he said. “Together, we must and will find a way to stop the decline in our inner cities, to restore hope and make the ‘90s a decade of urban renaissance.”

‘Strike Down Barriers’

In outlining goals for such an effort, the President said that the nation “must strike down barriers to advancement and opportunity for American minorities” and “create conditions for urban growth and economic revival.”

And, citing the need to combat crime, he added: “We must secure the most fundamental right of all--the right of young and old alike of any race to walk any street without fear.”

The President acknowledged that “subtle forms” of bigotry and bias persist in the United States and said that his Administration “will not tolerate discrimination, bigotry or bias of any kind--period.”