Jack F. Kemp's Legacy to Be Passed Along to Future Generations

The Jack Kemp Legacy

In 1989, Kemp was sworn in as the ninth
secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Secretary Kemp's historic contribution to the welfare of the citizens of the United States and our economy is unparalleled. His exemplary leadership in public service, professional football, and business, and his continuing crusade for strong institutions of economic growth and individual liberty have made Kemp a dynamic example of the values and principles to which the Pepperdine School of Public Policy is dedicated. Ed Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation and chairman of the School of Public Policy Board of Visitors, has noted, "Few members of Congress have ever had such a profound impact on politics and economics as Jack Kemp."

"Few members of Congress have ever had such a profound impact on politics and economics as Jack Kemp."
- Ed Feulner

Tax reform is a prime example of how sound ideas combined with principled leadership can elevate and enlarge the public debate. Kemp helped promote the supply-side revolution, inspired by Dr. Arthur Laffer and Nobel Prize-winning economist Dr. Robert Mundell in the early 1970s, which has spread from the U.S. throughout central and Eastern Europe. While these ideas came to be known as Reaganomics, the intellectual seeds were planted when Kemp recognized the significance of the John F. Kennedy tax-rate cuts of the early 1960s that raised revenues, spurred growth, and reduced inflation from 1961 to 1965. The 1977 Kemp-Roth bill, which proposed to cut statutory tax rates on democratic entrepreneurial capitalization across the board by 30 percent, proved to be an historic turning point. When Ronald Reagan chose Kemp-Roth as his principal campaign issue in 1980, the debate and our nation's economic future was fundamentally changed. Kemp's contributions span from economics to civil rights, from national security to urban enterprise zones.

Longtime Howard University board member
Kemp presented Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the
Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and
the director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for
African and African American Research at
Harvard University, with an honorary doctorate
from Howard University in 2007.

From the start of his public career in 1971, Kemp has articulated the principles of entrepreneurial capitalism in terms that resonate with all Americans—people of all backgrounds, races, and ethnicities. Based on the ideas of free enterprise, free trade, and the rule of law, Kemp's vision for America has been known for its concern for social justice and civil rights, the recognition of the heritage of immigrants who enrich each generation, and the fight against poverty and urban blight. In Congress, as secretary of Housing and Urban Development, as a candidate for vice president in 1996, or more recently, as an entrepreneur and philanthropist in the private sector, Jack Kemp has a profound and expansive understanding of the universality of the American Dream.