Showing posts with label Civil Rights Act of 1964. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Civil Rights Act of 1964. Show all posts

Friday, December 26, 2014

Let's hope we don't get another cyber-attack.

December 26, 2014 AP , Civil Rights Act of 1964 0 Comments
'Selma' Irks Top Lyndon B. Johnson Historian, Who Says Film Unfairly Vilifies President
Paul J. Weber, Dec. 24, 2014, AP

The director of the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, which hosted a major civil rights summit this year that was headlined by four U.S. presidents, said the film that opens in theaters Thursday incorrectly portrays Johnson as an obstructionist to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Read more: www.startribune.com

 Follow Larry Elder on Twitter
"Like" Larry Elder on Facebook
By - No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

And Now This...

November 12, 2014 And Now This... , Civil Rights Act of 1964 0 Comments

Follow Larry Elder on Twitter
"Like" Larry Elder on Facebook
By - No comments:
Labels: , ,

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

ICYMI: The Actual, True, Real Life Racist History Of The Democratic Party, Part II, By Larry Elder

October 14, 2014 Articles by Larry Elder , Civil Rights Act of 1964 0 Comments
President Lyndon Johnson signs 
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law
By Larry Elder, Apr. 11, 2013

As recently as 1956, nearly 39 percent of blacks voted Republican in that year's presidential election. After the Civil War, Abe Lincoln's Republican Party easily carried the black vote -- where blacks were allowed to vote. Unwelcome in the Democratic Party, most blacks voted Republican and continued to do so through the early part of the 20th century. It wasn't until 1948, when 77 percent of the black vote went to Harry Truman, who had desegregated the military, that a majority of blacks identified themselves as Democrats.

Yet, as a percentage of the party, more Republicans voted for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than did Democrats. For his key role breaking the Democrats' filibuster and getting the act to pass the stalled Senate, Republican Sen. Everett Dirksen, a conservative from Illinois, landed on the cover of Time magazine. President Lyndon Johnson called Dirksen "the hero of the nation." The Chicago Defender, then the country's largest black daily newspaper, applauded Dirksen's "generalship" for helping to successfully push through the bill.

Older black voters sometimes explain they're opposed to Republicans because of the "racist" Southern strategy. But Richard Nixon speechwriter Pat Buchannan, credited with inventing the "Southern strategy," considered the Democratic Party the party of the racists. Buchanan said: "We would build our Republican Party on a foundation of states' rights, human rights, small government and a strong national defense, and leave it to the 'party of [Democratic Georgia Gov. Lester] Maddox, [1966 Democratic challenger against Spiro Agnew for Maryland governor George] Mahoney and [Democratic Alabama Gov. George] Wallace to squeeze the last ounces of political juice out of the rotting fruit of racial injustice.'"

But before that, another pivotal event occurred that helped the GOP-as-racist meme. In 1960, during the presidential campaign, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested following a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter in Atlanta. Hundreds of other protestors were released, but King was jailed on a trumped-up probation violation for failing to have a Georgia driver's license.

King's aides reached out to then-Vice President and Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon. They also reached out to the Democratic nominee, John F. Kennedy. Bobby Kennedy called the Atlanta judge handling the case. Shortly after that call, the judge released King. Nixon, according to Harry Belafonte, a King supporter, "did nothing." Is that true?

Nixon, it turns out, had a much closer relationship with King than did Kennedy. In the Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, Calif., records show considerable handwritten notes and correspondence between Nixon and King. This includes a 1957 letter from King acknowledging their previous meetings, which thanked Nixon for his "assiduous labor and dauntless courage in seeking to make the Civil Rights Bill a reality," and praised him for his "devotion to the highest mandates of the moral law."

But in 1960, on the eve of the election, Nixon was in a tough spot. Nixon's public silence might be misconstrued as acceptance of King's arrest. On the other hand, as a candidate for his boss's job, Nixon worried about the political costs of appearing ungrateful if he chastised President Dwight Eisenhower for not taking stronger action. Eisenhower, however, was content to let the Justice Department handle the matter.

According to historian and presidential biographer Stephen Ambrose, while Nixon made no public comments, he telephoned Attorney General William Rogers to find out if King's constitutional rights were being infringed, thus opening the door for federal involvement. Nixon, a lawyer, was concerned about the ethics of calling a judge to get him to release someone.

Nixon, writes Ambrose, told his press secretary: "I think Dr. King is getting a bum rap. But despite my strong feelings in this respect, it would be completely improper for me or any other lawyer to call the judge. And Robert Kennedy should have known better than to do so." That Bobby Kennedy, also a lawyer, nevertheless made a phone call to the judge did not alter the issue of whether it was appropriate. In retrospect, an easy call, but not at the time.

Two million pamphlets titled, "'No Comment' Nixon Versus a Candidate With a Heart, Senator Kennedy," were distributed in black churches. Never mind that in 1956 Nixon revealed he was an honorary member of the NAACP. Or that Nixon pushed for passage of the '57 civil rights bill in the Senate. Or that Time magazine wrote that Nixon's support for civil rights incurred the wrath of one of his segregationist opponents, Sen. Richard Russell, D-Ga., who sarcastically called Nixon the NAACP's "most distinguished member."

But the GOP-is-racist meme can be heard nightly on MSNB-Hee Haw and in political science and history classes all over the country. Actor Morgan Freeman calls the tea party racist. Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., tells us that the GOP wants to "literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws."

Keeping blacks ignorant of history remains crucial to this caricature of the Republican Party -- and to the monolithic Democratic black vote. Not so black and white, is it?

 Related:  ICYMI: The Actual, True, Real Life Racist History Of The Democratic Party, Part I, By Larry Elder

Follow Larry Elder on Twitter
"Like" Larry Elder on Facebook
By - No comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Interview: Joe Hicks, former Chair L. A. Human Rights Commission --50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Interview: Joe Hicks, former Chair L. A. Human Rights Commission --50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

July 03, 2014 Civil Rights Act of 1964 , Civil Rights Movement 0 Comments


Follow Larry Elder on Twitter
"Like" Larry Elder on Facebook
By - No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Thursday, April 10, 2014

The True History Of Race And The Democratic Party By Larry Elder

April 10, 2014 Articles by Larry Elder , Civil Rights Act of 1964 1 Comments
Black Support For Bush Drops To Two Percent

By Larry Elder, Nov. 17, 2005

So much for the Republican "outreach" to black voters, with only 2 percent of blacks "approving" of the president's performance.

If only blacks knew of the true history of the Democratic Party.

"Black History Month" has been observed for 29 years, yet many blacks know little to nothing about the parties' respective roles in advancing or hindering the civil rights of blacks. How many blacks know that following the Civil War, 23 blacks -- 13 of them ex-slaves -- were elected to Congress, all as Republicans? The first black Democrat was not elected to Congress until 1935, from the state of Illinois. The first black congressional Democrat from a Southern state was not elected until 1973.

Democrats, in 1854, passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This overturned the Missouri Compromise and allowed for the importation of slaves into the territories. Disgusted with the passage of this Act, free-soilers and anti-slavery members of the Whig and Democratic parties founded the Republican Party -- not just to stop the spread of slavery, but to eventually abolish it.

How many blacks know that blacks founded the Texas Republican Party? On July 4, 1867, in Houston, Texas, 150 blacks and 20 whites formed the party. No, not the Black Texas Republican Party, they founded the Texas Republican Party. Blacks across Southern states also founded the Republican parties in their states.

Fugitive slave laws? In 1850, Democrats passed the Fugitive Slave Law. If merely accused of being a slave, even if the person enjoyed freedom all of his or her life (as approximately 11 percent of blacks did just before the Civil War), the person lost the right to representation by an attorney, the right to trial by jury, and the right to habeas corpus.

Emancipation? Republican President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War. In 1865, the 13th Amendment emancipating the slaves was passed with 100 percent of Republicans (88 of 88 in the House, 30 of 30 in the Senate) voting for it. Only 23 percent of Democrats (16 of 66 in the House, 3 of 8 in the Senate) voted for it.

Civil rights laws? In 1868, the 14th Amendment was passed giving the newly emancipated blacks full civil rights and federal guarantee of those rights, superseding any state laws. Every single voting Republican (128 of 134 -- with 6 not voting -- in the House, and 30 of 32 -- with 2 not voting -- in the Senate) voted for the 14th Amendment. Not a single Democrat (zero of 36 in the House, zero of 6 in the Senate) voted for it.

Right to vote? When Southern states balked at implementing the 14th Amendment, Congress came back and passed the 15th Amendment in 1870, guaranteeing blacks the right to vote. Every single Republican voted for it, with every Democrat voting against it.

Ku Klux Klan? In 1872 congressional investigations, Democrats admitted beginning the Klan as an effort to stop the spread of the Republican Party and to re-establish Democratic control in Southern states. As PBS' "American Experience" notes, "In outright defiance of the Republican-led federal government, Southern Democrats formed organizations that violently intimidated blacks and Republicans who tried to win political power. The most prominent of these, the Ku Klux Klan, was formed in Pulaski, Tenn., in 1865." Blacks, who were all Republican at that time, became the primary targets of violence.

Jim Crow laws? Between 1870 and 1875, the Republican Congress passed many pro-black civil rights laws. But in 1876, Democrats took control of the House, and no further race-based civil rights laws passed until 1957. In 1892, Democrats gained control of the House, the Senate and the White House, and repealed all the Republican-passed civil rights laws. That enabled the Southern Democrats to pass the Jim Crow laws, poll taxes, literacy tests, and so on, in their individual states.

Civil rights in the '60s? Only 64 percent of Democrats in Congress voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act (153 for, 91 against in the House; and 46 for, 21 against in the Senate). But 80 percent of Republicans (136 for, 35 against in the House; and 27 for, 6 against in the Senate) voted for the 1964 Act.

What about the reviled, allegedly anti-black, Republican "Southern strategy"? Pat Buchanan, writing for Richard Nixon (who became the Republican Party candidate two years later) coined the term "Southern strategy." They expected the "strategy" to ultimately result in the complete marginalization of racist Southern Democrats. "We would build our Republican Party on a foundation of states' rights, human rights, small government, and a strong national defense," said Buchanan, "and leave it to the 'party of [Democratic Georgia Gov. Lester] Maddox, [1966 Democratic challenger against Spiro Agnew for Maryland governor George] Mahoney, and [Democratic Alabama Gov. George] Wallace to squeeze the last ounces of political juice out of the rotting fruit of racial injustice.'" And President Richard Nixon, Republican, implemented the first federal affirmative action (race-based preference) laws with goals and timetables.


So next "Black History Month," pass some of this stuff along.


Follow Larry Elder on Twitter
"Like" Larry Elder on Facebook
By - 1 comment:
Labels: , , , , , ,

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Jackie Kennedy And The Forgotten Civil Rights Hero - By Larry Elder

April 06, 2014 Articles by Larry Elder , Bill McCulloch 0 Comments

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy
By Larry Elder, Apr. 6, 2014

The NAACP, for his role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, posthumously gave Sen. Everett Dirksen, R-IIl., an award for his leadership. The nation’s then-largest black newspaper, the Chicago Defender, saluted Dirksen’s “generalship” in securing the necessary votes.

But almost completely forgotten is Republican civil rights champion Rep. Bill McCulloch, R-Ohio. (House Speaker John Boehner now occupies McCulloch’s seat.) But for McCulloch, then-chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and his efforts in putting together a coalition to pass the ’64 act, the outcome might have been different.

In 1971, when Jackie Kennedy learned of McCulloch’s retirement, she wrote the following letter to praise this lawmaker whose district had less than 3 percent black votes.

“I know that you, more than anyone,” wrote Jackie, “were responsible for the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. You made a personal commitment to President Kennedy in October 1963, against all the interests of your district.

“When he was gone, your personal integrity and character were such that you held to that commitment despite enormous pressure and political temptations not to do so. There were so many opportunities to sabotage the bill, without appearing to do so, but you never took them. On the contrary, you brought everyone else along with you. …

“And as for my dear Jack, it is a precious thought to me that in the last month of his life, when he had so many problems that seemed insoluble, he had the shining gift of your nobility, to give him the hope and faith he needed to carry on.”

Now you know.

Related: The Elder Statement: Who was Republican Bill McCulloch -- And Why Did Jackie Kennedy Praise Him?

Related: Unknown History: The Republican Who Saved Civil Rights--Jackie said, "You, more than anyone were responsible..."

By - No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

The Elder Statement: Who was Republican Bill McCulloch -- And Why Did Jackie Kennedy Praise Him?

April 01, 2014 Bill McCulloch , Civil Rights Act of 1964 0 Comments
Bill McCulloch
Source:  Politico.com
By Larry Elder. Apr. 1, 2014

The late Lee Atwater, former Republican National Committee chair, apologized 30 years ago for the party’s past use of the race card.

Whether an apology was warranted -- or framed properly -- is for another debate. Atwater offered a mea culpa -- and still blacks vote 95 percent for Democrats.

Can we talk about jobs, education and job-destroying regulations, as well as our border insecurity that hurts domestic employment, especially for unskilled workers?

No, we can’t -- because these issues take a back seat in favor of the Democrat Party’s fight for “social justice” and for the battle against “income inequality.”

The GOP has been so successful maligned, discredited and condemned that many GOP haters, no matter their race, won’t be satisfied until they exhume Atwater’s body, perform an autopsy and try to isolate his racist DNA.

Has Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., or Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, current and past DNC chairs, respectively, ever said, “We’re sorry that Democrats founded the KKK, once known as the ‘terror wing of the Democratic Party’”?

No.

Have they apologized for their party's post-Civil War opposition -- lasting nearly 100 years -- to civil rights legislation, including their near-unanimous opposition to the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution?

No.

The NAACP posthumously gave Sen. Everett Dirksen, R-Ill., an award for his leadership role in securing the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The nation’s then-largest black-owned newspaper, the Chicago Defender, saluted Dirksen’s “generalship” in securing the necessary votes. He received letters of thanks from Roy Wilkins, the longtime leader of the NAACP, and from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A forgotten Republican civil rights champion is Rep. Bill McCulloch, R-Ohio, then-chair of the House Judiciary Committee. When Jackie Kennedy, in 1971, learned of McCullough’s retirement, she wrote a letter praising this lawmaker whose district, by the way, had less than 3 percent black voters.

Jackie wrote: “I know that you, more than anyone, were responsible for the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. You made a personal commitment to President Kennedy in October 1963, against all the interests of your district. When he was gone, your personal integrity and character were such that you held to that commitment despite enormous pressure and political temptations not to do so. There were so many opportunities to sabotage the bill, without appearing to do so, but you never took them. On the contrary, you brought everyone else along with you. …

“And as for my dear Jack, it is a precious thought to me that in the last month of his life, when he had so many problems that seemed insoluble, he had the shining gift of your nobility, to give him the hope and faith he needed to carry on.”

Now you know.


Follow Larry Elder on Twitter
"LIke" Larry Elder on Facebook
By - No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

Unknown History: The Republican Who Saved Civil Rights --Jackie said, "You, more than anyone were responsible..."

April 01, 2014 Bill McCulloch , Civil Rights Act of 1964 0 Comments
Bill McCulloch
By Todd S. Purdum, Mar. 31, 2014, Politico
The placid town of Piqua, Ohio, sits in the state’s west-central section, barely half-an-hour’s ride from the Dayton bicycle shop where Orville and Wilbur Wright helped prove that man could fly. Its name comes from the Shawnee Indian phrase “Othath-He-Waugh-Pe-Qua,” meaning “He has risen from the ashes!” and its best-known homegrown product is probably the Mills Brothers, the close harmony African-American singing ensemble that thrived from the Great Depression through the Vietnam War. The modern municipality incorporates a community once known as Rossville, which became the first free-black enclave in the region after a local slave owner’s death in 1833.

Today, Piqua is represented in Congress by the Honorable John Boehner, the speaker of the House of Representatives, who has shown himself politically unwilling (or at least unable) to protect gay men and lesbians from employment discrimination, to address the need for comprehensive immigration reform or simply to keep the government up and running in the face of the tea party’s caprice last fall.


Fifty years ago, the congressman from Piqua was an equally conservative fellow — but an altogether different man. His name was Bill McCulloch...

 Read the full story:  www.politico.com


Follow Larry Elder on Twitter
"LIke" Larry Elder on Facebook
By - No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Civil Rights Movement -- ‘Southern Strategy’ vs. ‘Northern Strategy’ (Part 1)

March 29, 2014 Articles by Larry Elder , Civil Rights Act of 1964 2 Comments
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964
By Larry Elder, Mar. 29, 2014

A big reason that blacks hate the GOP is that party’s alleged use -- during the ‘60s and beyond -- of the so-called “Southern Strategy.”

That is, the GOP supposedly made -- and many say continues to make -- both naked and subtle racial appeals to white racist voters: Vote for the GOP and we’ll promote policies to oppress blacks. Never mind that as a percentage of the party, more Republicans voted for the civil rights bill than did Democrats.

The author of the term “Southern Strategy,” Pat Buchanan, then a speechwriter for Richard Nixon, described his “strategy” very differently from that way today’s critics characterize it:

            "We would build our Republican Party,” Buchanan said at the time, “on a foundation of states' rights, human rights, small government and a strong national defense, and leave it to the ‘party of [Democratic Georgia Gov. Lester] Maddox, [1966 Democratic challenger against Spiro Agnew for Maryland Gov. George] Mahoney and [Democratic Alabama Gov. George] Wallace to squeeze the last ounces of political juice out of the rotting fruit of racial injustice.’”

Why do those offended by the “Southern Strategy” give a pass to the LBJ’s racist rationale for supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1964? These quotes are from “Inside The White House” by respected investigative journalist, Ronald Kessler:

“I’ll have those niggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years.” -- Lyndon B. Johnson to two governors on Air Force One

And:

“These Negroes, they’re getting pretty uppity these days and that’s a problem for us since they’ve got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we’ve got to do something about this, we’ve got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference.” -- LBJ

Finally, Jim Crow could not have survived but for government-imposed de jure segregation. If all the rednecks wanted not to trade with blacks, why would there be a to need pass laws to make these racists do what they are all supposedly doing anyway?

This is from Thomas Sowell’s book, “Preferential Policies, An International Perspective”:


“Even after such Jim Crow laws were passed, the streetcar company in Mobile initially refused to comply, and in Montgomery it was reported in the early years that blacks simply continued to sit wherever they pleased. In Jacksonville, the streetcar company delayed enforcing the segregation seating law of 1901 until 1905. Georgia’s state law of 1891 segregating the races was ignored by the streetcar companies in Augusta until 1898, in Savannah until 1899, and in the latter city was not fully enforced until 1906. In Mobile, the streetcar company publicly refused to enforce the Jim Crow laws of 1902, until its streetcar conductors began to be arrested and fined for non-compliance with the law. In Tennessee, the streetcar company opposed the state legislation imposing Jim Crow seating in 1903, delayed enforcement after the law was passed, and eventually was able to get the state courts to declare it unconstitutional.”

 Related:  The Elder Statement: Civil Rights Movement -- ‘Southern Strategy’ vs. ‘Northern Strategy’ (Part 2)


Follow Larry Elder on Twitter
"LIke" Larry Elder on Facebook
By - 2 comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , ,