My Turn

The Jan. 23 article by Thom George, chairman of the Kootenai County Democrats, asserts that National Black Republican Association (NBRA) information on civil rights has been "discredited." In fact, NBRA material is based on research by well-respected historians. References include a Claremont Institute article entitled "The Myth of the Racist Republicans" and the book "Unfounded Loyalty" by Rev. Wayne Perryman who sued the Democratic Party for that party's 150-year history of racism. As author Michael Scheuer stated, the Democratic Party is the party of the four Ss: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism. From founding in 1854 as the anti-slavery party, the Republican Party has always been the party of freedom and equality for blacks. After winning the Civil War, Republicans amended the Constitution to grant blacks freedom, citizenship and the right to vote. Republicans then passed civil rights laws in the 1800s that were overturned by Democrats with the Repeal Act of 1894 after Democrats took over Congress in 1892. Democrats also enacted the discriminatory Black Codes and Jim Crow laws. It took Republicans nearly six decades to finally achieve passage of civil rights legislation in the 1950s and 1960s. Even though Democrat President Harry Truman's issued an Executive Order in 1948 to desegregate the military, it was Republican President Dwight Eisenhower who actually took action to effectively end segregation in the military and subsequently pushed to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Further, it was Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt who began dependency on government handouts during the Great Depression with his "New Deal" that turned out to be a bad deal for blacks. During the civil rights era of the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought against the Democrats, including Democrat Public Safety Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor in Birmingham who let loose vicious dogs and turned skin-burning fire hoses on black civil rights demonstrators. Democrat Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox famously brandished ax handles to prevent blacks from patronizing his restaurant, and Democrat Alabama Gov. George Wallace blocked the entrance of two black students at the University of Alabama in 1963. All of these racist Democrats did not become Republicans. The so-called "Dixiecrats" were a group of Southern Democrats who, in the 1948 national election, formed a third party - the State's Rights Democratic Party - but continued to be Democrats for all local and state elections, as well as for all future national elections. It defies logic for Democrats today to claim that the racist Democrats suddenly joined the Republican Party after Republicans finally won the civil rights battle against the racist Democrats. Notably, Republican Sen. Everett Dirksen from Illinois pushed through the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act. In fact, Dirksen was instrumental in the passage of civil rights legislation in 1957, 1960, 1964, 1965 and 1968. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. hailed Sen. Dirksen's "able and courageous Leadership" in obtaining passage of civil rights legislation. Democrat Presidents Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy are heralded as civil rights advocates. However, both Johnson and Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Act. In his 4,500-word 1965 State of the Union Address, Johnson addressed numerous federal actions, but devoted only 35 words to civil rights and none to voting rights. Johnson's anemic civil rights record can be found in his presidential papers. Kennedy opposed the 1963 March on Washington and authorized his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, to investigate Dr. King on suspicion of being a Communist. Democrats condemn President Richard Nixon for his "Southern Strategy" that was an effort to get fair-minded people in the South to stop voting for racist Democrats. Pat Buchanan, the architect of the "Southern Strategy," wrote in a 2002 article that Nixon said the Republican Party would leave it to the Democratic Party, the "party of Maddox, Mahoney and Wallace to squeeze the last ounce of political juice out of the rotting fruit of racial injustice." Democrats castigate former RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman who graciously apologized for actions of Republicans, such as the "Southern Strategy," that are wrongly perceived as racist. Relying on this false perception, Democrats attack the deceased Lee Atwater, a tough political strategist who beat the Democrats in the political arena, but was not a racist. Frances Rice is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and Chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She may be contacted at: www.NBRA.info. Frances Rice My Turn