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Aug. 10, 2005 Last August, I wrote a rebuttal to a racism quiz posted by fellow columnist Craig Chamberlain (see “The Other Side of Craig Chamberlain’s Racism Quiz”, August 9, 2004). In that piece, I laid out a historical argument to illustrate that today’s Republican Party bears no resemblance to the more progressive and forward-thinking party that put its stamp on the American civil rights movement. That piece also serves as an adequate rebuttal to much of Ken Hughes’s recent column, “The New Slave Masters Are Black”. While conservatives love to point out the role of the Republicans played in emancipating blacks in the 19th Century, they tend to ignore the perception that the Republicans are not a party for blacks of the 21st Century. For the record, I don’t believe Ken Hughes is a racist. Although we don’t agree on politics, we do agree that our country still faces some serious issues regarding race relations. His last column is missing some key pieces of historical subtext that make it clear how the political climate in America over the last half-century has formed. Here is an abbreviated version of my column, “The Other Side of Craig Chamberlain’s Racism Quiz”. **** While it is true that the Republican Party made many contributions in the fight for civil rights, today’s Republican Party has been strongly influenced by yesterday’s Democratic Party. You see, the Republican Party of 1864 wasn’t much different than the Democratic Party of 2004. Back then, Republicans were more liberal in their thinking, and were concerned about the social issues of the time. In the stretch of time beginning with Abraham Lincoln and ending with Calvin Coolidge, then skipping over to Dwight Eisenhower, Republican leadership did some amazing things for the United States. Among them: 1) The abolition of slavery and the passage of the 15th Amendment, which secured, on paper, the right for black men to vote. 2) The institution of the civil service system, to ensure that government jobs were filled with those best qualified for them, instead of being filled as political favors. This predated affirmative action by almost a full century. (One point that I did not make in the original column is that the civil service system was a direct result of President James Garfield’s assassination.) 3) Breaking up big monopolies to ensure that no one company could control a single industry. 4) Sending in federal troops to ensure that educational facilities in the South were integrated. It’s also no great secret that many blacks involved in politics during that time frame were Republicans. Hiram R. Revels, the first black man to ever sit in the US Senate, and Blanche K. Bruce, the first black senator to serve a full term, were both Republicans. Still, for all the progressive things the Republicans did in that time, there were racists among them. Neither Lincoln nor Eisenhower had a high regard for blacks, but they subjugated their personal feelings to uphold the oath each of them took with the job—to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. The Democrats, particularly those in the South, formed a proverbial nest of vipers, making laws that infringed upon the rights of blacks and poor whites, disenfranchising them and making them targets of hatred. The political pendulum began swinging, though, during FDR’s third term and Truman’s full term. FDR mandated integration of the rest facilities in the Pentagon, despite a Virginia law that required separate bathrooms for the different races. Truman mandated integration of the armed forces as part of policy, and fired General Douglas MacArthur when he didn’t comply with the order. And when Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society was launched, capping the modern era of civil rights, it spelled the end for the Republican Party’s black support base. In the last forty years, as the Democrats shed a history of racial insensitivity and bigotry, the shrapnel landed among the Republicans, in the form of turncoats who changed party as a matter of expediency. Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond, and other Southern Democrats left the party that had helped build to taint another party that had its eyes on America’s future. There are racists in today’s Republican Party, but that doesn’t mean all Republicans are racist, just as all Democrats are not liberals. The real question is, what is the Republican Party willing to do to win back the black vote? It can’t rest on the laurels of what was done back in Abe Lincoln’s day. That was a different Republican Party. ------------ About the author: Claxton Graham has written a number of articles for Useless Knowledge. He works as a business systems analyst. Email: scifiwriter8502@email.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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